The Legend of Spyro: Devil's Shadow
by CynderFanForever
Summary: Spyro and Cynder are called to a cheetah city to help the warriors out against a mysterious force. Every time one of the warrriors dies, they whisper, "The Devil's shadow is upon us." Who is the 'Devil' that they mention? And how is Cynder connected?
1. Down in the Valley

The Legend of Spyro: Devil's Shadow

Chapter One- Down in the Valley

Spyro woke in his and his Cynder's cave home. He looked around for Cynder, but the black dragoness was nowhere in sight.

He went outside the cave and looked down in the valley below him. Cynder was there, at the river, trying to catch a fish for her and Spyro's breakfast. So far, she had caught no fish.

"Hey, Cynder," greeted Spyro as he flew down to the riverside.

"Morning," she grumbled back, her emerald eyes watching the river as if they were a hawk.

"Have you caught any fish at all, Cynder?" Spyro asked his girlfriend, eyeing her beadily.

"I did catch one," she said.

"Let me guess, you ate it, Cynder?"

She turned around to look at him. "I'm sorry, Spyro. It's just, well, I'm not in a good mood, and I also didn't get much sleep last night."

"Why not?" Spyro asked.

"I kept having nightmares," she admitted.

"What were they about?" Spyro questioned.

"I'd rather not say, Spyro," Cynder told Spyro. "Let's just say, they were vivid and I was in them, and so were you, Spyro. I was injured and you were close to me, crying."

Spyro moved towards Cynder and put his head on her chest. "Cynder," he said, "nothing like that will ever happen, I'll make sure of it."

Cynder nodded and nuzzled into Spyro's chest with her snout. "I love you," Cynder whispered.

"I love you too," Spyro whispered back to her.

Then Cynder decided to jump into the air and taunted Spyro by saying: "Come and catch me if you can, Spyro!" She laughed. It was nice and felt warm to Spyro when he was near her.

"Not fair!" Spyro said. "You know that you're a much better flyer than me, Cynder!"

"Never thought I'd see the day when Spyro the Purple Dragon couldn't keep up with Cynder the Black Dragoness!" Cynder said to Spyro, still laughing.

"Guess that it would come one of these days," Spyro told her, now laughing. Then he flew into the air and caught her by surprise by dashing right past her.

"Hey!" Cynder exclaimed. She too tried to dash past her mate, but it was no use whatsoever. Spyro was a better flier than her.

They played around all morning, chasing each other in and out of the Valley of Avalar.

It was midafternoon when Spyro saw a startling sight: an old hermit was coming towards the two playful dragons. Spyro recognized him as the hermit who had used his words to get under Cynder's skin, saying that he still believed Cynder would go back to Malefor's side.

"What do you want?" asked Spyro.

The hermit said, "I knew I'd see you two again." He spotted Cynder. "Well, then, Cynder, it seems the so-called 'Terror of the Skies' was able to stay on the side of the heroes and not go back to Malefor. How amazing."

Spyro started to say something, but Cynder cut him off.

"He corrupted me again, you know," she told the hermit that she so much hated.

"Cynder, what are you doing?" interrupted Spyro.

Cynder said nothing, remembering when Malefor had once again corrupted her in his lair and ordered her to attack Spyro, whom she loved:

"Fight back!" she yelled when she noticed he wouldn't fight or look at her. "Why won't you fight back!"

He answered:

"Because you've left me nothing to fight for."

That had changed Cynder back to normal and caused Malefor to chain them back together with a green snake chain.

After that, they had fought him until they reached the world's core and the Ancients defeated Malefor by taking him into the deepest part of the world itself.

"I knew he would," acknowledged the hermit.

"How'd you know that?" Spyro could no longer contain himself.

"The prophecies foretold such," he explained.

"That's impossible," said Cynder. "No such prophecy could have something like that written."

"How would you know that?" asked Spyro.

"Because it's part of the old age. All prophecies of the old age were wiped off when Malefor was defeated and the world was repaired by you," Cynder explained to him.

The hermit, defeated, looked down at the ravine below the valley and spotted something.

"There's someone down there," he told the dragons. "I think they're looking for you." Then he skulked away.

Cynder turned to Spyro. "I can't believe he'd still go through so much trouble, and just to get under my skin!"

"It's okay, Cynder," comforted Spyro, nuzzling her.

"Excuse me," said a voice. "Are you Spyro and Cynder?" It belonged to a red cheetah.

"Yes, we are." It was Cynder who answered.

"I have a note for you," said the red cheetah, who was unmistakably a male's.

Spyro took the note and walked away to read it.

"Hope you too have a good day," wished the cheetah.

"You too," Cynder said back to him, forcing a smile.

The red cheetah left, and Cynder went over to Spyro, who was reading the letter.

"What does it say?" she asked.

"It says that Chief Prowlus is in the middle of a battle with some of the Dark Master's remaining followers. He wants us to come as fast as we can. It's amazing that any of Malefor's army is still alive, especially after us and when Malefor almost destroyed the world."

"Should we go?"

"I don't know," admitted Spyro. "There's something strange about this battle, I can't explain it."

Cynder flashed a true, warm smile at him. "I think that maybe we should go," she told her mate. "Just in case, you know?"

"Cynder, don't you realize that there is something strange in this letter? I really don't think we should go!"

Before Cynder could even answer, there was a splitting pain in her head and she fell to the ground.

* * *

><p>Cynder was on the floor, bleeding. Spyro was trying to help her, but it was no use. She was too badly injured.<p>

"Cynder, I'm going to get you out of here, just hold on!" he gasped. "I'm going to use my Earth Breath to get you out of here."

"Just leave me," she rasped.

"Not in a million years, Cynder!" he yelled at her "I'd rather die than watch you die here, helpless and weak, you know that, Cynder!"

Spyro breathed a blast of Earth that knocked her out of the castle. She could only watch in horror as the castle fell, her mate inside.

* * *

><p>"Cynder!" said a worried voice. "Cynder, wake up!"<p>

Cynder stirred. She felt the grass rustle on her scales.

"Spyro?" she grumbled. "Is that you, Spyro?"

"It is," said Spyro. "Come on, Cynder, you're worrying me!"

Cynder felt the blood rush back into her limbs and got up. She noticed that she was groggy.

"Cynder, what happened?" asked Spyro fiercely. "Did you have another dream? Blast it, Cynder, answer me!"

Cynder recoiled; she had never heard so much venom in Spyro's voice all at once.

"Spyro, are you okay?" Cynder squeaked fearfully.

"No, I won't be until you tell me, Cynder, what your dream was about!" Spyro told her.

Cynder sighed and began:

"Well, I was on the floor, injured, and also terribly bleeding. You were there, crying. You were telling me that you were going to get me out of the castle- that's what we were in- and let me live my life, also saying that you were done for. The final part had you blasting me out of the castle with an Earth blast, then the castle completely fell apart, you inside."

It was a moment of uncomftorable silence between the two of them. Then Spyro broke it:

"Cynder, you know that I would never allow that to happen," he comforted her. "I love you too much to let that happen to either you or me."

Cynder felt tears in her eyes. "Thank you, Spyro." She opened her wings and flew off to their cave.

Spyro did not follow her immediately. He instead took off in the opposite direction, towards the Cheetah village.

"Hunter!" he called once he had gotten to his destination.

A golden Cheetah looked up from making a fire. Spyro looked up at the sky; it was indeed soon to be night.

"Spyro," Hunter greeted, waving. "How are you and Cynder?"

"Well, for me, okay, I guess," said Spyro, "but for Cynder, not so much. And why didn't you go with Chief Prowlus?"

"I didn't go because he wanted me to stay to watch over the village. And what's happened with Cynder?" said Hunter.

"Well, we were down in the valley near our cave when she felt a bad pain in her head and fell to the ground. When she woke, she told me that the dream was about her dying, me right next to her, crying, a castle crumbling, and finally me blasting her out of the castle with my Earth Breath. Do you know anything about this?"

Hunter was silent for a moment, then answered:

"Cynder came to me a few days ago, telling me about a similar dream, though she said it was in her old fortress," explained Hunter, "and you were there, Spyro, but you were the one attacking her. The final part of the dream had you slashing her chest, and you were laughing. Then she died in the dream, with you still laughing."

Spyro felt a burning desire to be left alone, but stayed where he was. One question burned in his mind: Why didn't Cynder tell him of the first dream?

When he asked Hunter this question, he said, "She probably didn't want to worry you."

Spyro still felt mad at Cynder.

"Don't be mad at her, Spyro, she just didn't want to worry you," said Hunter. "Wasn't there a time when you had dreams like this?"

"Yes, there was, but-"

"And during that time, didn't Cynder comfort you at all?"

"Yes, she did, but-" he stopped. Spyro felt ashamed. One night, after one of his dreams, Cynder had been next to him and she had checked on him. Was he really this tackless?

"Hunter, I've got to go," he said suddenly, then, without waiting for Hunter to say something, he flew off to his and Cynder's cave. Night had already fallen over the valley.

When he came in the cave entrance, Cynder gave a gasp of relief. She had obviously been worried about where he had gone.

"Hey, Cynder," Spyro said quietly, his face burning.

"Hey, Spyro," said Cynder. "What's wrong, Spyro?"

"Look, Cynder, I was very tackless with confronting you about the dream," Spyro explained. "I went to go see Hunter and he reminded me of that time you comforted me after one of my dreams, beore you left the Temple and after I had defeated you when you were evil. What I'm trying to say is, I'm sorry, Cynder, and I hope you'll for- give me."

Cynder came up to him and looked him in the eye.

"Spyro, I already forgave you, only because you never meant to be like this," she told him.

"How do you know that, Cynder?" asked Spyro. "I'm sorry, but you don't know everything."

"I know because I see it in your eyes, Spyro. When you look in somebody's eyes, you can see everything. Of course, some people don't have such a gift, such as the Hermit and Malefor himself. If Malefor had this gift, then he could've seen that I had never wanted to serve him in the first place. If the Hermit had it, then he wouldn't be trying to get under my skin all the time."

Spyro knew that what Cynder was saying was true.

"Cynder, about this dream at your old abandoned fortress," Spyro went on. "What was it of, again?"

Cynder sighed. "Hunter told you of this, didn't he?" Spyro nodded. "It was in my old abandoned fortress, yes, and we were both there, except I was fighting you. You were shrouded by darkness, and you kept slashing me. According to the dream version of myself, it hurt so much. I could see blood. The final part had you slashing my chest more brutally than before, and I was dying, you were laughing. I died in the dream, and you were still laughing, like Malefor did when he corrupted me that second time and I was attacking you."

Cynder began to cry. Spyro dashed forward and hugged her. All through the night, Cynder cried, the memory of the dream forever burned in her memory.

When it finally subsided, Cynder looked up at Spyro, then fell asleep, her emerald eyes still watery.

Spyro walked over to the entrance of the cave, looking at the beautiful night, which was stamped with twinkling white stars.

"Ancestors, please watch over me and Cynder," he pleaded. He looked back at the beautiful dragoness curled up on the cave floor. "Keep us safe on the journey tomorrow. Most of all, keep Cynder happy no matter what happens, whether it have something to do with me or her."

He made his way back over to Cynder, curled up on the floor next to her, and whispered to her, "I love you."


	2. The City

Chapter two-The City

Spyro woke in the morning to find that Cynder was standing at the entrance to the cave. He went over to her to see if she was doing alright since last night.

"Hey, Cyn, you doing okay?" he asked her in a soft, warm voice.

"I am," she answered. "I'm just thinking of when we should go to the cheetah city to help Chief Prowlus and the members of his tribe that went with him."

"I think we should go today to see if they need us, just in case," Spyro suggested. "Don't you think so?"

"Yeah, but I'm just wondering why they would need our help against the remaining members of the army. They did pretty good in the fight against the army back when we were in Warfang."

"Maybe the army has a new leader," said Spyro. "But I know for sure that their leader can't be as evil as Gaul or Malefor."

"We all know that'd be the truth," Cynder agreed. "But I just want to know who their leader is and what he-or she-is doing this for."

Spyro nuzzled up to her. "We'll find out soon enough. Come on, let's get going." He flew off toward the cheetah village and Cynder soon followed.

Hunter was overlooking the few cheetahs that had been left behind by Chief Prowlus working in the village.

Spyro and Cynder landed on either side of him. "Hello, Spyro, Cynder," he greeted. "Are you two going to the cheetah city to help Chief Prowlus and the other warriors out in the battle?"

"We are," Spyro answered. "Will you be going soon, or are you just going to stay here, Hunter?"

"I was given specific orders by Chief Prowlus to stay behind and watch the village while he was away in the battle."

"We must go now, Hunter," Cynder told him. "May the ancestors watch after you."

"Yes, and you too, Cynder," Hunter replied to the black dragoness.

Spyro and Cynder flew off towards the city. The city was known as Kasi, named after the cheetah king who had died during the first battle against Malefor.

Cynder flew close to Spyro, her head hung. Spyro knew that it would take a while before they arrived at the cheetah city. "Cynder, if you tire out, you can always sleep on my back," he told her.

"Thank you, Spyro, but for right now, I think I'm okay," she assured him. "All I wonder right now is if those nightmares of mine will return. I hope not."

"I don't think they will, Cynder. After all, look at my dreams I had back during the Night of Eternal Darkness. They stopped soon after it began."

"Well, that's true, but please remember that I'm not like you. Unlike you, I couldn't stop myself from having doubts when we finally confronted Malefor. Because of that, he was able to corrupt me a second time."

"Hey," interrupted Spyro. "Don't think of that. Just think of good thoughts. I once heard of a dragon who went into battle with bad thoughts and was killed seconds after entering that battle. Another went into battle with good thoughts and was able to win the entire battle without getting a scratch on him. If he could do that, then so can we."

"Who told you that, Spyro?"

"Ignitus, back when the Night of Eternal Darkness was about to begin. You were there, but you were sleeping at the time." Spyro laughed. "I wish that I had not had any doubts during the battle with Malefor too, but I did, but we were able to come out on top, weren't we? We were able to save the world and defeat Malefor once and for all, right?"

"I guess so," Cynder said. "Well, I wonder how long it really will be before we get to the cheetah city. What do you think, Spyro? A couple of hours?"

"Maybe. But for right now, we should just focus getting there. You know what I mean, Cynder?"

"I do," she answered. And so they flew on to the cheetah city, both their minds set on one thing: Cynder's dreams.

The sun was high in the sky when the city came into sight. A lookout on a tower spotted them, and then yelled to an unseen person below, "They're here! They're here! Spyro and Cynder have come! Hurry, go get Chief Prowlus!"

Spyro and Cynder landed on the tower and greeted the lookout.

"I see that you're doing a good job being the lookout," Spyro observed. "That's good. You should keep it up."

The lookout looked astonished at being given a compliment by Spyro, the dragon he knew to have saved the entire world from Malefor's wrath.

Spyro and Cynder jumped down to the street below. Chief Prowlus was standing at the entrance to a temple. He waved at them, then granted them entrance. The floors and walls were made of pure marble, and many tiny lanterns hung from the ceiling.

"I'm glad you came," said Chief Prowlus. "We needed your help desperately. The battle is raging on over in the large village that lays near here. My warriors and the warriors here in the city are suffering greatly against the other army. It is because of that that I called you here, young dragons."

"Who is the leader of the other army?" asked Cynder.

"So far, we don't know. Either it's a dragon or a large bird, as during the battle I have seen a large shadow flying over the ground, blasting bursts of fire at my warriors. A dragon would be the best guess, as I don't think a bird can breathe fire," Chief Prowlus explained. At the end of the last sentence, he gave a small laugh, then went on with, "I am very glad you are here. If you can defeat the army and then defeat their leader, then I am very sure that my warriors will win, and peace will be restored to our lands. Do you think that's a good plan, you two?"

"Yes," Spyro said honestly. "We will do our best to stop this battle. You can trust us, Chief Prowlus."

"I know I can. After all, you stopped Malefor from destroying the world and defeated him once and for all. If not for you, we would all be his slaves right now, or worse, dead."

Both Spyro and Cynder nodded.

"You both will stay in the guest room here in the temple. The battle will not resume until some time tomorrow, thank God." As both dragons walked away, Prowlus called, "And by the way, you might just see the Dragon Guardians out there! They came just a few days before yourselves."

At hearing this, glee found its way into both Spyro and Cynder's hearts. Ever since they had defeated Malefor, they had not seen the Dragon Guardians. The last they had seen them was back in the dragon city of Warfang, where they and the fire Guardian Ignitus had left them to go through the Belt of Fire, where Ignitus had given his life to let the two live and confront Malefor.

They went to the room, getting directions from a few warriors on the way. When they entered, Spyro and Cynder were in awe.

The room was draped in white cloth, a chandelier hanging from the high marble ceiling. A dresser was in the corner, and a large bed was situated at the head of the room. Cynder's mouth hung open. Spyro saw, and closed it for her.

She turned to Spyro and gave him a smile. She then leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. When she leaned back, she saw that he was surprised at the kiss. Embarrassed, Cynder said, "Sorry."

"It's okay, Cynder," Spyro told his mate. Even though they were now mates, he was still getting used to her kissing him.

That was when they heard the deep grunt behind them. Spyro and Cynder whirled around, ready to fight who-or-whatever was about to attack them, but then they relaxed when they saw that the newcomer was Terrador, the Earth Guardian.

"Terrador!" Cynder exclaimed. "You're here!" She bounded over to the large green dragon and gave him a nuzzle on the leg. Cynder barely reached up to Terrador's knee.

Spyro also came up to Terrador. "It's good to see you again, Terrador," Spyro greeted. "Where have you been for so long though?"

"I've been helping the world rebuild," the Earth Guardian answered. "The world has not been the same since Malefor returned. But since you defeated him, the lands and the population of those lands have worked together to restored what had been before Malefor returned, and before the Night of Eternal Darkness."

Spyro knew that Terrador had left a part out. In fact, the world had really not been the same since Cynder, under Malefor's corruption, had begun the war. Spyro knew that he had left that part out so that Cynder would not be hurt by his words.

"So will we see you during the battle tomorrow?" Cynder inquired.

"Yes, you will," Terrador assured. "I will make sure to help you both during the battle. Be warned: this army is even more powerful than it had once been when Malefor returned from his imprisonment."

"That must mean that their leader is more powerful than Malefor ever had been," said Cynder.

"Or maybe it's just because Malefor didn't give any of his power to any of his army, while the army's new leader is giving them some of their power," suggested Spyro.

"That is true," said Terrador. "Would you two like to come and see the other Guardians? We and some of the cheetah warriors sit around a fire and suggest any tactics for the battle. We've been doing it ever since this terrible battle even started."

Both Spyro and Cynder agreed to it, and they had to hurry as Terrador walked off towards the room with the fire. When they arrived, they saw that the marble floor was not there, and it had been replaced by the dirt and grass that appeared outside on the ground.

A small fire blazed in the middle of the floor. Both Spyro and Cynder smiled when they saw the two other Dragon Guardians, Volteer and Cyril, the electricity and ice Guardians. Ignitus had once been the fire Guardian, and the leader of the Dragon Guardians until his death.

"Spyro, it's good to see you again," Cyril greeted. "And you too, Cynder. I hope your lives have been good since Malefor was defeated?"

"Yes, it has," answered Cynder. "The only problems we've had have been with a hermit and a few headaches, most of them being mine."

"Ah yes, I have had a few of those too, and I cannot seem to get rid of them until I go into the heat of battle. That is very strange to me, is it to you?"

Both Spyro and Cynder just blinked. While Cyril was very bright, he was still brimming with much arrogance and pride.

"Er, well, yes, that is very strange to us," Cynder stammered. "Maybe tomorrow, my headaches will go away as soon as I start fighting the army." Cynder laughed to herself, and Spyro soon began to laugh with her.

"I don't understand how that is very funny, but then again, you both are still young dragons, so..." Cyril trailed off.

"Yes, and now that we've exchanged greetings," Terrador interrupted, "we can go back to our tactics for battle tomorrow. What were you saying about the army, Volteer?"

"I was saying that this army seems to be getting stronger every day we fight them," Volteer said. About three years ago, Volteer had been full of energy. Because he was the electricity Guardian, and because he was able to breathe electricity, he talked very fast and, at times, was unbearable to listen to, but ever since Malefor had escaped imprisonment, he became more stressed and sounded more tired than full of energy. "If they gain too much power, then we may not be able to gain the upper hand."

"I would rather not think of that, Volteer. Now that Spyro and Cynder are here, we have more hope than we did when the army began this siege. Both Spyro and Cynder have been able to defeat Malefor, so that means that they should be able to defeat this army in only a matter of a few hours."

"It only took maybe forty-five minutes for us to defeat Malefor," Spyro said. "If we were able to do that, then- well, how large is this army you're talking about?"

"Maybe around three hundred at the most," Terrador told him. "How long will it take you to defeat an army of that size?"

"A couple of hours at the most," Spyro admitted honestly. "At least, that's what I think. You can never be sure, can you?"

"You can never be sure, that is the truth," Cynder acknowledged. A line of pain shot into her skull. She slapped a paw to it, and said, "Excuse me, I think one of my headached has returned."

She ran out of the room, her headache worsening with each step she took. She found an empty room and entered. Just as she entered, the pain intensified, and then Cynder collapsed.

"Where is he, Cynder?" shrieked a voice.

"I don't know!" Cynder cried. She was chained around the neck. Her blood dripped from her mouth. On the floor there was already a puddle around her feet. A pink dragoness entered her view.

"Why are you doing this to me, Zyla?" Cynder asked, her voice rasping with fatigue and agony.

"I am doing this to you because you sealed away my master! For years, all I had was my sister, Malyf, but then even she decided to leave me for her own plans! As of now, all I have is myself!" Zyla raised a long-clawed paw and slashed Cynder's left wing. With only one slash, all that was left of Cynder's wing was shreds. "Now you'd better tell me where you're beloved purple dragon is, right now, or I will kill you, Cynder!"

"You'll have to kill me, because I will never tell you where the dragon I love is! After all, I would die for him!"

"Then so be it!" Zyla yelled. She raised he long-clawed paw again and Cynder closed her eyes. Her last thought before her life was extinguished was of Spyro.

"CYNDER!" roared a voice.

Cynder opened her eyes. She was laying on the cold stone floor of one of the rooms in the temple. She heard pounding on a door. She got to her feet and went over to the door. She hadn't noticed that it was closed, but it didn't matter now. When she opened it, Spyro dashed in and looked around for her. When he found her, fear faded from his face and was then filled with relief.

"Cynder, are you okay?" he asked. But he couldn't do much else, as Cynder ran up to him and buried her face in his chest, sobbing. Surprised, he draped a wing over her and held her close. "Did you have another nightmare?" he whispered.

"Yes," she answered, still sobbing. "Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't," he promised. "Come on, let's get back to the room. You'll need some sleep before tomorrow." She did nothing as he walked her down the hall to where their room was. Once they were inside the room, Cynder went to the bed, jumped up on it, and as soon as she lay down, she fell asleep. Spyro smiled as he saw her sleeping. He was going to join her, but for right now, he needed to go back to the Guardians to give them a made-up explanation of what had just happened.

As he approached the room, he heard a deep cough behind him. He whirled around and saw Terrador standing in front of him.

"What just happened, Spyro?" he demanded.

"Cynder really just wasn't feeling well, so I put her to bed," Spyro lied. "I think she'll be feeling better tomorrow, but for right now, she's not feeling well."

"Don't lie to me, Spyro, because I know you're lying," Terrador snapped.

"I'M NOT LYING!" Spyro said defensively. "WHAT I'M SAYING IS THE TRUTH, TERRADOR, CAN'T YOU JUST ACCEPT THAT!" Just as Spyro finished, he closed his eyes. He hadn't meant to yell at Terrador. He just wanted to make sure that Terrador didn't learn the truth of what Cynder was going through.

"Fine," growled Terrador. "Now that this is done, why don't you go off to sleep? You'll need it for tomorrow, Spyro."

Spyro nodded, and padded away. He was ashamed that he had just yelled at Terrador, whom he was sure had just been trying to help him and Cynder.

When he entered his and Cynder's room, he sighed and jumped onto the bed beside her. He pulled her close to him, and as his eyes closed, he could hear Cynder's soft breathing.


	3. The Siege Begins

Chapter three- The Siege Begins

As morning light seeped into Spyro and Cynder's room, Spyro heard the sound of a horn being blown.

His eyes flew open, and he could feel Cynder stirring beside him.

"What's going on?" Spyro grumbled. He got up and went over to the window and looked for the source of the noise. He saw, on a hill, a cheetah. He could tell the cheetah was a warrior due to the armor he wore.

Spyro suddenly knew that the siege was about to begin. He dashed over to Cynder and shook her. She grumbled, but then jumped off the bed faster than Spyro could see. They ran for the hill. As they left the room, Spyro saw warriors arriving on the hill. He now wished that he had brought the armor he and Cynder had collected during their quest to defeat Malefor and save the world. He hoped that Prowlus had some armor for him and Cynder so that, when they were hit by the evil army's weapons, they would not be injured as much.

Cynder hurried past him, hoping that they could get there in time for the siege to begin. It's time we end this, Cynder thought to herself.

Blood pounded in her ears as she ran out of the temple. When they arrived at the hill, they saw that the Guardians and Chief Prowlus were already there.

"Good, your here," said Prowlus. "The battle is about to begin. We especially need to protect the city behind us. There are women and children that can't fight there."

"Alright, we'll do our best," Cynder promised him.

"Thank you for coming to help us, Spyro, Cynder. I am honored to fight by your side," he told them.

The dragons both nodded. The cheetah with the horn blew it again. There was a loud roar and Spyro saw the other army charging at them. "Wait," said Cynder. "The battle's just started?"

She saw Chief Prowlus nod, then let loose a fierce battle cry, as did the rest of the cheetah warriors. They too charged. Cynder jumped into the air and flew at the head of the other army. She blasted poison, which melted the armor of a commander and left a wide, hairy chest open to attack. Cynder blasted more poison at the commander. The commander screamed out in pain as his chest corroded and killed him slowly, but surely.

Cynder moved on and kept blasting soldiers with each of her four main elements, and her much more powerful side-element, which she and Spyro nicknamed Fury Breath. A blast from the element could cut through any armor and the flesh undernaeath the armor at the same time.

Spyro shot a volley of fire arrows, then used his Comet Dash to burn away the armor of one of the soldiers. He continued with another Comet Dash, which tore through the skin of the soldier. Blood dripped on the grass as the soldier fell to the ground, dying from his severe and bloody wounds.

Chief Prowlus was in the middle of battling three soldiers at the same time. He killed two of the soldiers, but the third punched Prowlus across the face. Prowlus went sprawling to the ground, blood dripping from his nose. The soldier raised his axe and prepared to deliver the death blow, but at that time, Terrador swept down and broke the neck of the soldier with his front paws. Terrador landed on the ground next to Prowlus and helped him up.

Spyro knew that Terrador could barely use his Earth breath anymore, as, when she was evil, Cynder sapped the last of his strength into a crystal that would help free the Dark Master's essence from Convexity.

"Thank you," said Prowlus.

"Your welcome," responded the giant green earth Guardian.

"TERRADOR, WATCH OUT!" yelled Volteer. But it was too late... a torrent of dark fire struck him in the side. Terrador screamed in pain. Cynder looked up in the sky, and for a second, she could see a large pink dragon flying away from the scene of the battle. She opened her wings, ready to take off against the enemy dragon, but Spyro came up to her and stopped her.

"Come on," he told her. "I saw the dragon, too, but we can go after them later. Right now, we have to go and see if Terrador is good enough to continue on in this battle. If he is, then that's good, but if not, then we're one good warrior short, and we need every warrior in this battle. It's getting serious. While I was fighting some of the soldiers up in the front of the line, some of them were about to get to the city, but thanks to me, our warriors were able to stop every one of them."

Cynder nodded. She and Spyro walked over to Terrador, who was still gasping from the blast of fire's intensity. "Are you okay, Terrador?" Cynder asked. "Will you be able to fight anymore?"

"No, I don't think so," Terrador gasped. "I think I'll have to rest for the rest of the time that the battle is going on."

Cynder sighed. She wanted badly to fly after the pink dragon and defeat it, as she could tell that the dragon was probably the leader of the other army, so that none of her warriors could suffer any more pain.

Cynder suddenly felt a headache form in her head. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the pain, and she felt glee when her headache ebbed away.

Terrador, being helped by Prowlus and Cyril, limped away from the scene of the battle. Cynder wished that he could've stayed to help them with the other army's leader, but she knew that he was badly injured and needed to rest for now.

She ran over to Spyro. "We need to go after that large pink dragon I saw, now!" she exclaimed. "If we can defeat it, then this battle will be done and we can finally go back home, Spyro."

He sighed, shuffling his paws indecisively. "I guess that you can go follow the dragon for a bit. I'll take over from you when you feel too tired to continue."

"Okay," Cynder agreed. "I'll see you later then." She opened her wings and took off into the sky, in hot pursuit of the large pink dragon who had injured Terrador.

She flew for what seemed like an hour before she caught a glimpse of the shimmering scales near where a burning building was in the main part of the city.

Cynder took a mad dash into the main part and spit poison at the pink dragon. She missed by a few inches. But that was enough to get the attention of the pink dragon. When the pink dragon whirled around, Cynder could already see something familiar in the pink dragon's eyes and face. But she didn't know what it was.

The pink dragon spit a torrent of dark flames at Cynder. Cynder dove to the ground to avoid the heat and blast. She used her shadow form to get into the flames. When she reappeared in the pink dragon's point of view, Cynder clawed the pink dragon's back, leaving long, bloody furrows along the pink scales' pattern.

A roar ripped from the pink dragon's mouth, and Cynder felt a large amount of pain in her right wing. Though she began to lose altitude, she recovered and flew back up. She could still feel pain in her wing, and it was hard for her to fly now. But she tried as best she could to stay up.

Just as the pink dragon raised its claws once again, Spyro came out of nowhere, and shot fire at the pink dragon. Fury shone brightly in Spyro's amethyst eyes. Obviously, seeing his mate in pain made him act quickly so that they could be saved in time.

Flames shot from both Spyro's mouth and the pink dragon's mouth. At first, Spyro seemed to be the victor, but then the pink dragon's flames began to gain power and Spyro seemed to get weaker with every extra blast of fire he put into his regular torrent of flames.

To help her mate, Cynder shot shadow fire and combined it with Spyro's regular fire. The pink dragon released the flames and flew off to another part of the city, but did not blow fire on the buildings...yet.

Cynder went after the pink dragon once again, Spyro not too far away from her. He was flying slowly, as he had been weakened by how much power he had used with his fire against the pink dragon.

Cynder was flying slowly too. She looked over at her right wing and saw that pieces of the thin membrane that were usually there were missing. As pain lanced through her entire body, Cynder winced, but still sped up to keep on the pink dragon's trail.

If the pink dragon was able to get away, then Cynder would blame herself. And if the pink dragon was able to make its army win the battle, then Cynder would be too ashamed to show her face in the city ever again.

Cynder spat poison at the pink dragon. It landed on the pink dragon's tail, causing bloody burns to appear along the length of its tail, even inbetween the tail spikes. The dragon let out a roar of agony. Blood visibly dripped from the open wounds. Cynder knew that her poison, if left unattended, would infect the wounds and cause the victim to die in a few months.

But months was too long for the battle to end, and Cynder didn't want to use too much power on the pink dragon, as she would risk using too much energy and not be able to keep in the battle with Spyro.

She wanted to end this battle once and for all so that nobody would die anymore or be injured terribly. That was when she saw the pink dragon breathing fire on a building. Rage boiled up inside of her, knowing that there were mothers, children, and also those of whom could not or were unable to fight due to wounds sustained in earlier battles. Cynder dove into the building, using her shadow form to protect herself from the blazing flames that blocked the broken window that acted to her as the only entrance in the entire building.

She moved through the building, avoiding the flames in her way. She listened for screams and small sounds that signaled that there were others in the burning building besides her. That was when she heard whimpering coming from a far corner of the burning building. She looked around for a moment, then saw the little girl sitting by a few boxes. The cheetah child held a teddy bear in the crook of her arm, snuggling it close to her. She wore a dress so dirty that it was hard to imagine what it looked like before now. There was the dead body of a cheetah warrior not far from her. Cynder went over to the little girl, who was still whimpering and shaking uncontrallably with fear.

"Are you okay?" Cynder whispered to her. The little girl kept whimpering. "Where is the rest of your family?"

The little girl still did not answer.

Cynder looked over at the cheetah warrior, who she then realized was trying to whisper something to her. She listened hard, and was able to make out, "The Devil's shadow is upon us." Then the warrior closed his eyes, and died.

She looked back at the little girl. Her eyes looked over behind Cynder. Cynder whirled around.

She was barely able to dodge a swipe from the pink dragon in time. Cynder defended the little girl. She pointed the sharp point of the blade on her tail at the pink dragon, hoping to be able to end the battle by killing the pink dragon with a stab to the heart.

She longed for everything to be over, to just go back to her regular life with Spyro in the Valley of Avalar.

But that would be unable to happen as long as the pink dragon was still alive and its army was still moving. But Cynder knew that this was where the battle ended, where the pink dragon was defeated once and for all, and where the world would go back to the way it was after Malefor had been defeated once and for all.

The pink dragon swiped again. This time, to protect the little girl, Cynder let the claws rake her side, leaving long, bloody gashes that bled profusely. Cynder winced, then spit shadow fire at the pink dragon. Soon burns covered the pink dragon's back. When Cynder finished, she yelled, "Who the heck are you?"

The pink dragon smiled, then said, "I am known as Zyla. You should remember who I am, Cynder. After all, I was under your command once." At the last words, there was a small drawling tone. The dragon was obviously a female.

Cynder thought for a moment, and then suddenly remembered who this pink dragon was. But before she could do anything else, a long, clawed paw hit Cynder in her right side. Cynder felt agony, and the next thing she knew, she was falling at an alarming rate to the hard ground below. She heard the fast flapping of wings. She felt claws wrap around her body gently, then heard a voice say, "I've got you, Cyn! Just hang on!" It was Spyro's voice, she knew that.

As her vision flickered, the last thing Cynder heard herself say was, "Spyro, save the child!"

Cynder was fighting Zyla in a dungeon. Both of them were severely wounded. Gashes lined Cynder's back, and burns covered most of Zyla's body. Cynder shot shadow fire, and it hit Zyla in the side of the face. All that was left of her face was here eye and some of the pink of her cheek and snout. But the flames had blackened everything else.

Blood created a small pool down at Zyla's feet, and the same went for Cynder. Cynder could feel herself weakening, and knew that soon enough, she would be too weak to continue in this battle and Zyla would finally be able to win. Just as Cynder was about to give up, an image of Spyro burst into her mind, and Cynder thought to herself, I have to do this...for Spyro!

Even her thoughts had slowed down because of her exhaustion. Her limbs ached terribly, and her wings felt as if they were going to fall off.

Zyla blew a torrent of scalding flames that Cynder was just barely able to dodge. Cynder retaliated with her own torrent of dark flames. The two bursts of flame collided with each other. They stayed even, and then Zyla suddenly stopped. Cynder stopped also to catch her breath. She took a glance up at Zyla, who was breathing heavily.

"You're never going to win, Zyla!" Cynder snarled. "This is where you meet your end, you evil, malignant creation of a creature!"

Zyla laughed at the insult. "You think so?" she drawled. "I think not. In fact, I believe that this is where YOU meet your end, Cynder, you puny black dragoness!"

Cynder let out a roar and lunged at Zyla. Cynder clawed at Zyla's back, her claws raking right through flesh and even scratching the bone.

Zyla tried to shake Cynder off, but it was no use; Cynder had too good of a hold on her. Then Zyla rose up and released a fury of dark flames. Cynder flew into a pillar. Her vision flickered, and as she blacked out, she saw Zyla raised a claw and aim it at Cynder's heart.

Cynder opened her eyes. She was back in the temple in the cheetah city. It seemed that she was in the infirmary, as she could see Terrador not too far from her. He seemed to be sleeping deeply, as he was snoring loudly. Cynder knew that his injuries were making him do this. She then leaned back.

"What happened?" she grumbled.

"I don't know," said a voice. She turned her head a little and saw Spyro standing near her. He had a few scars, but none of them were bad enough that he couldn't fight again. "I just saw you falling out of the window of that burning building, and I was able to catch you in time, but you were pretty badly injured, especially with the claw marks on your side."

Cynder closed her eyes, then remembered the little girl. "Spyro," she whispered, "there was a little girl in the burning building. Where's-" She was cut off by Spyro, who had raised his paw to her mouth.

"It's okay," he said. "We were able to get to her in time. And if you were wondering, we won the battle today, though there will be more, according to Chief Prowlus and one of his advisors."

Cynder sighed, feeling relief seeping into her aching limbs.

"But we weren't able to get that pink dragon. They escaped," Spyro continued.

Chieg Prowlus entered the room. "Yes," he said, "but we were all lucky that we didn't suffer too many casualties today."

"Did you lose anybody you knew?" Spyro asked.

"One of my friends I had known since I was born."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Yes, he didn't deserve to die, but he still died a warrior's death, and we know that he will go up to be with our Maker, that's what truly matters."

Spyro and Cynder both nodded. Then Prowlus turned his gaze to Cynder. "How do you feel?" he asked her.

"I feel okay, but of course, I could feel a heck of a lot better, and so could the rest of us," Cynder answered.

Before they could do anything else, there was a large explosion. Terrador's head snapped up. A cheetah warrior staggered into the infirmary.

"Meadow, what is it?" said Prowlus.

"Chief Prowlus, the entire temple is under attack!" Meadow answered "Gather the warriors! ARGHHH! The Devil's shadow is upon us!" Meadow fell to the ground. Prowlus went over to him and checked his pulse. Prowlus got up and bent his head.

"Is he alive or not, Chief Prowlus?" Terrador asked.

"He is dead," he told them. Spyro and Cynder, shocked, also bent their heads. Then they saw the red-orange flicker of movement, and it was Cynder who screamed out,

"CHIEF PROWLUS, WATCH OUT!" But it was too late. The flames hit Prowlus and knocked him into a wall. He slumped to the ground. Spyro dashed over to him.

Chief Prowlus looked into Spyro's amethyst eyes with his blue eyes. Chief Prowlus whispered, "The Devil's shadow is upon us. You are our last hope."

It was with those words that Chief Prowlus died.


	4. Attack on the Temple

Chapter Four-Attack on the Temple

Spyro closed his eyes and mourned for the dead cheetah leader. Though he had never truly trusted Prowlus, because he had chained him and Cynder back when Malefor had escaped and tried to to take over the world because he did not trust them, knowing what Cynder had done when she was under the Dark Master's control and did not trust Spyro, as he was a purple dragon just like Malefor had been.

Cynder also mourned for Prowlus. She did not blame Prowlus for chaining her and Spyro because she knew that he had only been trying to protect the village and all those in it.

A laugh broke the eerie silence that had descended after the explosion and Chief Prowlus's death. Terrador let out a snarl. "Who's there?" he yelled.

"Oh, it's just me, the pink dragoness who led the other army against your army of spineless, and weak soldiers," said a drawling voice. Cynder's heart skipped a beat when she saw the large pink dragon step into the infirmary. Fear entered her heart and she began trying to find the energy to use her elemental power on the large pink dragoness. If she was able to kill the pink dragoness, then peace would be restored to the cheetah city and she would be able to avenge Chief Prowlus's death, as she was sure that it was this dragoness's fault that Chief Prowlus was dead. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Terrador struggle to get up. The pink dragoness did not see that, though. Once Terrador did get up, he limped slowly and silently towards the pink dragoness, planning to surprise her with an attack from behind. Still oblivious to Terrador, the pink dragoness went on.

"This is where your life ends, Cynder," snarled the pink dragoness.

"H-How do you know who I am?" Cynder stammered.

"I told you back in that burning building with the little girl. My name is Zyla, and you were my general back when the Dark Master was at the height of his power." Cynder's eyes widened in fear when she heard this. "And then those Guardians had to come along and seal my master away, and my sister, Malyf, had to leave me so that she could go on with her life, as she said. But then, thanks to you, Spyro, and you, Cynder, Malefor was able to come back. But then you sealed him away once again, this time forever. It's time that you die for what you did to my master! In all the time in my life that I spent with him, he only did one terrible thing to me: he used dark magic on me. After that, I had vowed that I would never forgive him for that. But I had to forgive him, as he threatened to use the dark magic on me once more. Since then, I have been a true follower and have not faltered in my quest to be the ultimate follower of his, unlike you, Cynder. You stopped living right when you were freed by Spyro here. If not for you, Spyro, then Cynder and I could have been the two ultimate followers of Malefor."

"He used her!" Spyro said, but Zyla payed no attention.

"This is where I get my revenge on the two dragons who sealed my master away!" Zyla continued. "This is where you both meet your end! And don't even think of trying to stop me, for you cannot defeat me, for I am immortal! Say 'hello' to Death's cold embrace, Spyro and Cynder!" Zyla lunged at them both, but Terrador pinned her tail on the ground. Zyla spun around, surprise evident in her red, and otherwise emotionless, eyes. She swiped at Terrador's face, but he was able to move his face out of the way before she could hit it.

He retaliated with a tail whack across her face. The spiked club on the end of Terrador's tail left three long scratch marks just below Zyla's right eye.

Snarling, she freed her tail and then suddenly disappeared into thin air. Cynder looked around for the pink dragoness, but she could not see any sign of her. That was when she saw a shimmer in the air near Terrador's left flank. She squinted and realized that the shimmer had a shape. Cynder opened her mouth, and with all the strength she had left in her body, blew her wind breath at where the shimmer was. The wind also blew dust around, causing the true form of the shimmer to be seen. Terrador was able to see that out of the corner of his eye. He used his back leg to kick at the shimmer. Suddenly, Zyla reappeared and flew into another infirmary bed. Dazed, she looked up at the Earth Guardian. Blood trickled down the side of her head. She did nothing to stop the bleeding. She instead lunged at Terrador, who was not suspecting the attack. Her long claws raked his flank, and blood spurted from the wounds. Terrador grunted in pain, but returned the favor by hitting Zyla in the leg. She didn't betray the fact that she was in pain, but Spyro knew that she was.

Spyro looked over at Cynder, who was gasping for breath. The wind attack had obviously taken a lot out of her, mostly because of the injuries she had sustained during the siege earlier that day. "Are you okay?" he asked her.

She nodded, but was still gasping for breath. "I'm just out of breath, is all. I used most of my energy on Zyla so that Terrador could be warned of her upcoming attack." She saw that Terrador was on the ground. She tried to get up so that she could help him, but her sustained injuries prevented, and Spyro also was making her lay back down. He didn't want her to be injured any more than she already was. He went over to where Terrador and Zyla were fighting, and spat fire at Zyla. She was unable to dodge, and the flames burned her front right leg. She screamed out in agony.

Many cheetah warriors dashed into the infirmary, but before they could do anything to help Spyro and Terrador against Zyla, she let loose a large torrent of dark flames and incinerated all the warriors. Anger burned in Spyro's mind and vowed that he would avenge them all by killing Zyla once and for all before she could hurt anybody else that he knew or loved, especially Cynder.

He charged Zyla head on, then did a horn dive that made her skid into a pillar supporting the room. The pillar broke in two and much rubble fell from the ceiling. Zyla was barely able to get out of the way as it landed where she had been seconds before. Spyro realized that if he could make Zyla destroy all the pillars, then the room would collapse on her and kill her. But it would be risky, as both Cynder and Terrador were injured, and it would be hard to get them out at the same time, because their injuries prevented them from regularly walking, only being able to limp.

Of all of them, Terrador had the worst injuries, so he would go first, and Cynder would go next, as she was injured badly, just not as bad as Terrador was.

Spyro would leave last, to ensure Cynder and Terrador's safety. But he would have to find the right time for him to do this.

Maybe I should get them out now, he thought to himself. But if he was unable to get out in time when Zyla destroyed the last pillar, then he would die as the room collapsed on top of them both.

He looked back at where the entrance to the infirmary was. After the infirmary collapsed, the temple was sure to seconds after, or it would at least start to crack but not fall in. He yelled to Terrador, "Terrador, go as fast as you can out of here! Cynder, when he's gone, you go after him, okay?"

He saw them both nod. He was about to say something else, but as he opened his mouth, he was cut off by a snarl by Zyla.

"The Guardian can go, but Cynder will stay here, and die!" Zyla said. "This battle will never end! And you can count on me to make that happen!"

Cynder, using even more of her already very low strength, lunged at Zyla, ripping apart Zyla's flesh. Zyla only grunted, but no other sounds of pain escaped Zyla's lips. Zyla shook herself violently, causing Cynder to fly off and hit a pillar, breaking the pillar at the same time. Spyro dashed over to his mate's lifeless body. She was alive, but she had been wounded terribly when she was knocked into the pillar and when she broke the pillar at the same time.

Cynder moved feebly, then fell back into unconsciousness. Tears formed in Spyro's eyes. He hoped that she did not die, as he loved her more than anything else in the whole entire world, and if she died, then there would be nothing for him to live for.

Zyla laughed. It was a cold, high laugh that sent shivers down Spyro's spine. Anger also formed in his heart, and he knew that he was about to kill Zyla for what she had done to him: Almost taking Cynder away from him.

Zyla kept laughing. Spyro clenched his claws; he had had enough of this. He dashed at Zyla and tore and bit at her back. This time, she screamed in pain.

Blood dripped onto the floor. A pool was at the evil pink dragoness's feet. Terrador edged around her, and then took her tail in his claws and threw her at another pillar, completely destroying it and making the ceiling crack wide open, exposing the inky black sky above. Tons of rubble came raining down. Spyro dashed over to Cynder, picked her up in his claws, and ran out of the room.

Terrador followed slowly behind, the side with the burns making it very hard for him to move quickly.

Just as the ceiling began to creak and break completely apart, Zyla came flying out of nowhere, aiming her claws for Spyro. He knew she was coming and dodged, causing her to fly into a glass case. When she got up, blood flowed from the cuts the glass had created. She began to limp to where Spyro was, but he was too fast for her, especially since she was limping, and so he flew off again and made it to the main entrance of the temple. He made a mad dash to get out of the place before it collapsed on them, and was able to succeed. He, Terrador, and Cynder were now safe, and Zyla was about to be killed by the collapsing temple. Spyro closed his eyes, and wished that he could have saved her, even though she had just tried to kill both him and Cynder, and even Terrador. Spyro wondered if she had been corrupted by Malefor, but from what she had said, it sounded as if she had served Malefor faithfully, unlike Cynder, who had been forced to do so.

But then there was an ear-splitting roar, and Zyla hurtled out of the collapsing temple. Cynder roared back and flew up into the air. Even though Cynder was small and agile, Zyla caught her by surprise by feigning a dodge to the right, then moving quickly to the left. Cynder had fallen for it, and Zyla swiped at her body. Cynder felt the long claws tear through her flesh, and she suddenly began to plummet to the ground, unconscious.

Spyro opened his wings and flew up, catching Cynder at the last second. He could hear small moans coming from her. As he landed, he put the small black dragoness on the ground softly. The only thing he wanted to do now was to kill Zyla and end her reign of terror. He may have, a few seconds ago, felt remorse for her, but now, he had none: Anybody that harmed Cynder in any way would feel his claws, teeth, and any other weapon slice through their body and die.

Terrador stared at the young purple dragon and could see the hate in his eyes. Spyro would never possess this trait unless something had been done to greatly upset him. And Cynder being injured would most certainly trigger it.

Zyla landed behind Terrador. He had not seen her. He felt a splitting pain in his head and then fell to the ground.

From Terrador's slowly rising and falling sides, it was obvious that the earth guardian was still alive. Zyla looked straight into Spyro's amethyst eyes. Her red, emotionless eyes burned right back at him. The dashed straight at each other, and as they collided, Spyro felt his vision flicker, and all went black.


	5. Imprisoned

Chapter 5- Imprisoned

Spyro felt crust on the side of his face as he opened his eyes and raised his head. He could see metal bars in front of him and knew suddenly that he was inside a prison cell.

The memory of the fight came back to him and he looked around for Cynder. He saw her lying in a corner, her breathing very shallow.

He got up and went over to the small black dragoness. He realized that her body was also quite cold. Fear stirred inside Spyro's body. She couldn't be dead…she couldn't be.

But then a gasp escaped her lips and she began coughing. Blood and spit came out of her mouth. After a minute or so, she stopped, looked up, and saw Spyro. Then she smiled.

"Thank God you're alive," she croaked; her throat was dry and it was sore.

"I should be saying the same to you, Cyn," Spyro told her. "You were just coughing a lot, and your body was cold to the touch." He shivered at the thought.

"Don't worry about me, Spyro," said Cynder. "All you need to worry about is getting out of here."

A small creature came over to them. Spyro could not recognize it at first. It was obviously not a creature he had encountered on his adventures. But he didn't know about Cynder.

The creature carried a plate of food. It pushed it under a gap in the metal bars in the bottom. Then it turned and ran away.

"What was that thing?" asked Spyro.

"I don't know," Cynder admitted honestly.

Spyro went over to the food and sniffed it. It didn't smell like there was poison in it, but he couldn't be sure until somebody had tried a bit.

He nibbled a piece off of some meat and swallowed it. It did not seem poisoned. He pushed the plate towards Cynder to offer her some. But she shook her head. He could see that she was staggering a little, as if she were off-balanced.

"Are you okay?"

"I think so. I'm just tired and I don't feel so well right now."

"Maybe you should get some rest, Cyn. You need some anyway. You were really exhausted after the siege yesterday."

She shook her head, and then said, "What do you think happened to Terrador?"

"I don't know," Spyro admitted. "He was badly hurt the last time I saw him, so I don't know if he was brought here or died of his wounds."

"Oh I hope that hasn't happened!" Cynder gasped. "But wait, what about Zyla? Is she still alive, or did you kill her during her attack on the temple?"

"Cynder, you know I don't kill without a full reason," Spyro told her. "But if I did kill her, which I doubt, then I definitely did have a reason to do so. And it was because she injured you, the dragoness I love. And as I've said before, anybody that hurts my mate will die slowly but surely, just so that they can feel the pain they inflicted upon both me and you."

Cynder nuzzled up to Spyro and said, "I'm glad you would do such a thing for me. But don't let such dark thoughts overtake you. They could latch onto your heart, and once you have been corrupted, there may be no way to return you to the original way that you once were." After that, she looked up and kissed Spyro. But the feeling was short lived when a cold, evil laugh swept through the cell.

"How lovely," said the voice of Zyla. "I knew you two would even find love even somewhere as dark and desolate as this."

Cynder whirled around and snarled. "Shut up! Just because you'll never find true love doesn't mean that we never will, Zyla!"

Cynder's statement caught Zyla off guard. She had never been spoken to in such a way. But it was true that Zyla would never find true love. Her heart was too dark for such things.

"Why, you little piece of filth! Don't you dare talk to me like that!" Zyla screeched. "I may not be able to find true love, but love does nothing but give a person grief! Have you never noticed that?"

"I've never noticed because the only time I ever fell in love, that person never gave up hope for me! They stood by my side no matter what, through thick and thin, through light and dark!" Cynder replied. "And I know for sure that Spyro will never leave my side, no matter what happens! In fact, I'm sure that not even you can tear us apart!"

"JUST SHUT UP!" roared Zyla. "YOU MUST DIE, AND YOU WILL! I WILL SET UP AN EXECUTION, AND YOU SHALL BE THE ONE TO BE EXECUTED! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME, YOU PIECE OF FILTH?"

"I have nothing to fear, nor does she," said Spyro calmly. "Why should we as long as we have the Ancestors to light our path?"

With malice burning in her eyes, Zyla stalked away in disgust. Spyro turned to Cynder. "You did the right thing," he told her. "But the only consequence is that you will be executed. Cynder, you know that I will never be able to live without you."

"I won't be able to live without you, either, Spyro, but she can try to separate us as much as she wants, but it will never work because we both know that love always prevails and that if one of us dies, one of us will know the other will always be waiting on the other side. Remember that."

Spyro nodded. He walked over to a corner of the room, then curled up and lay on the cold stone floor. It held no comfort for him.

Cynder came over to him and lay down next to him. Without her, Spyro realized, the floor felt cold. But with her, it felt warmer.

He knew that, with each coming minute, the execution day drew nearer. But he would do whatever he could to protect Cynder and prevent the execution from happening.

His eyes drooped low, and soon enough, he had fallen asleep.

Cynder watched over him, and knew that what she said was true.

Moonlight streamed into the cell through a barred window. It entered Spyro's eye, and he woke up. He felt cold, and knew that Cynder wasn't next to him due to the absence of warmth in the spot next to him. He looked up and saw her sitting on a wooden bench that was right in front of the barred window.

"Cynder, what are you doing?" Spyro asked her. She jumped, whirled around, then saw that it was only Spyro.

"I'm just thinking, Spyro," she answered.

"Of what?" he asked.

"Of how we can escape. It seems almost impossible, what with Zyla and her goons hanging around here every time of the day. If we tried to escape through this window, we would probably be stopped by guards hanging around outside. So that leaves really no options and we're too exhausted to really fight our way through this prison. At least, that's what I think it is."

"Probably is," said Spyro. "We should wait a couple of days before we try to escape so that we can rest up. What do you say?" Then Spyro remembered that Cynder was set to be executed.

"We don't have a couple of days, but I do have a plan."

"What is it?"

"When I'm about to be executed, I'll use all my strength to break free and then come to get you. If you're too well guarded, then I'll go ahead and go get some help. Does that sound good?"

"It does, and you're a genius!" Spyro exclaimed. "But what if you aren't able to get enough strength to break free by the time the execution happens?"

"Then there will be a problem, won't there?"

Spyro nodded. He knew that he didn't want to lose Cynder. He had never lost her, and he didn't plan to do so.

The two suddenly heard the clacking of claws and Zyla appeared at the cell door.

"Hello, wretches," she greeted coldly. "Have a nice sleep? Probably not. Too focused on how you will be executed, huh, Cynder?" A cold smile formed on the pink dragoness's lips. Spyro and Cynder noticed how it never reached her eyes. They were cold, black pits of darkness. Not even sunlight could reach into them, and nothing reflected off of them.

"No, I wasn't. As long as I have Spyro by my side, why should I care if I'm executed or not? Even if I do die, then I have nothing to fear, because I know that when his time comes, Spyro will join me once again and we will live happily ever after wherever we are. We all know that you could never feel these emotions, Zyla. Your heart is too dark."

Rage leaped into Zyla's eyes once again. She spat at Cynder, "You know, you would never have to worry about being executed if you hadn't said those words yesterday and today. You are going to die, and that will be the last I will have to deal with you, Cynder!"

"Ain't you just cheerful?" replied Cynder.

"Gah! You are such a waste of space! Won't you just die already?" snapped Zyla.

"Nah. I think I can wait a couple more days."

"YOU ARE GOING TO DIE, CYNDER, AND YOU CAN'T STOP IT FROM HAPPENING, SPYRO! DON'T EVEN TRY!"

"You know," Cynder began, "I don't give a crap about what you are saying, because I still have Spyro, and that's all that matters."

Zyla, shaking with rage, stalked away once again and Cynder laughed. "She'll never understand a thing."

"That was amazing, Cynder," said Spyro. He was amazed at what she had just said. "She never saw it coming, I'll definitely say that. But that won't stop her from the execution."

"Trust me, I know," Cynder told him. "But I just felt like getting that out of my system. She deserved everything I said towards her. She will never be able to understand what I said. Her heart will probably block everything out about love. Love is the thing she will never understand, because she never has experienced it. But we understand it because we have experienced it. Love is what caused Malefor's downfall. He never understood it, and that's why he never could fully control that corruption on me. With love, we can conquer anything."

"And now we know Zyla's main weakness: love."

"Exactly. There may be a way we can use that against her, too."

"We already have. Just today you showed how we can use it against her. You stood up to her by saying that she never will get what love truly means, that her heart is too dark for it."

Cynder smiled and went over to Spyro. She nuzzled him and whispered, "I love you, Spyro."

"I love you too, Cynder," he replied. "And that love will never end."


	6. Execution Day

Chapter Six

Execution Day

Spyro opened his eyes and saw Cynder. Her side was moving slowly. He could hear small moans of pain coming from her. He knew it was because of her injuries she recieved from the attack on the temple.

The same small creature that had brought them their food the day before appeared in front of their cell. Spyro's eyes had been out of focus then, but now he was able to see the creature fully. It was a little troll, which he could see from the green skin and the long nose.

"What do you want?" asked Spyro.

"It's time we put the chains on you," it said. Its voice was deep and raspy.

"You're not going to-wait, did you say me, and not Cynder?" Spyro exclaimed.

"Yes, filth," said the voice of Zyla. "I decided that you deserve to be executed instead of that piece of filth, Cynder."

"Why me instead?" said Spyro.

"Because, when you're dead, she'll be easier to defeat," Zyla explained. She appeared out of the shadows near the cell.

"Even when I'm dead, she'll have enough strength to defeat you. And you know exactly why, Zyla."

"Please don't give me any more of that love crap. None of it is true, and you know it. If it was, then why can't I find true love? I mean, you pieces of trash can, but I can't. Why is that?"

"Because you don't believe in love," Spyro told her. "Me and Cynder do."

"That's a lie!" Zyla interrupted. "You know, she probably never believed in love back when she was under Malefor's control. And if you ask me, she was better back when she was. She didn't care much about love back then. And now she does, which is so annoying! She deserves to die! But her death is going to be long and slow, to deal her the pain she deserves!"

Spyro could feel anger rising, but kept his cool. He looked over to Cynder, who was watching them, her emerald eyes large and watery. Zyla's insults were getting to her, but so was Spyro's non-faltering love for her. The troll unlocked the cell door and opened it. It raised some shackles and then proceeded to put them around Spyro's neck.

But before it could do so, Cynder ran forward and hugged Spyro. He gently hugged her back. "Be safe," she whispered into his ear.

"Everything will be okay," he told her. "Just don't worry about me. You should only worry about yourself. I will make sure that you won't die at Zyla's claws."

The troll slipped the chain around Spyro's neck and began dragging him away. Zyla went into the cell, looked at Cynder, and slapped the small dragoness in the chest with her tail. Cynder went flying, and then hit the wall forcefully. Cynder moaned loudly.

Spyro tried to get out of the chains, but the troll was too strong. Zyla appeared next to him. She laughed, and it made rage appear in Zyla's eyes, which was not missed by Zyla.

"Angry, are you?" she taunted. "Don't worry. You'll no longer have those emotions once you have been executed."

It seemed like half an hour before they got to the execution hall, as Zyla called it.

There a guillotine in the middle of the hall. Zyla and the troll brought Spyro over to it. They put Spyro's head underneath the blade. There was a rope that raised the blade. The troll put its hands around the rope and gripped it.

Spyro thought of Cynder and hoped that this wouldn't be the last time he ever saw her. She was too important to him, and he was too important to her. She was watching through the bars of her cell. Cynder realized that Zyla had done this so that either of them could see the death of their mate.

She fought back tears as she watched. _Come on,_ _Spyro_, she thought, _get the strength to get out of the chains, please_!

Back down in the arena, Spyro saw some of the soldiers on the opposite side of the cheetah warriors he fought alongside with back during the siege. They were coming to watch the execution.

He was gathering strength in his body and limbs, hoping he could get enough to break out of his chains, get back to the cell, save Cynder, and then escape the prison forever.

But the main problem with that was getting away from Zyla. If she followed him, then it would be much more complicated with trying to save Cynder. But he knew that even if he had to fight to the death with Zyla, he would save Cynder.

Spyro closed his eyes, and felt the power of the elements surging through his veins. He opened his eyes just as Zyla growled, "Cut the rope!", and released the energy. He saw it destroy the guillotine and the troll and soldiers be disentegrated.

Cynder saw the release of energy from the cell window. Then she saw the shockwave coming towards the cell and jumped off the bench and shielded herself from the shockwave. It hit the cell walls, causing debris to fall everywhere. One of the rocks pierced her wing, and then she screamed out in extreme agony.

Spyro heard the scream and was about to fly up to the cell, but Zyla appeared in front of him. Blood dripped from a cut on her chest.

"You are going to die, little dragon!" she snarled. Fire was burning in her eyes. It was a blazing wildfire. Spyro was about to retaliate and attack her when a large green boulder fell out of the sky and hit the earth in front of them. But then the boulder unrolled and Terrador appeared in front of Spyro.

"Terrador!" Spyro exclaimed. "You're alive! But how?"

"I'll explain later. But right now, we need to find Cynder and get the heck out of here!" Terrador growled.

Zyla, who had been knocked unconscious by the impact, began to stir, and both Spyro and Terrador knew they had to find Cynder and get out of there.

Both Spyro and Terrador flew to the main part of the prison. The looked at the few parts of the main prison that remained. Spyro's energy blast had caused most of the prison to be damaged in the blast. It was so badly damaged that Spyro couldn't see which cell he and Cynder had been in.

He hoped that he had not accidentally killed her in the blast. If so, then he would have to blame himself.

He looked over to Terrador. "I don't know where she is," he told the earth guardian.

"Then we'll have to come back later," Terrador said. "There's no chance of finding her now. If she is still alive, then we will have to come back later. There's no point in staying here and looking for her. Do you know what I mean?" Spyro didn't answer. "For all we know, she may have escaped already. She may have gone into refuge somewhere."

"Fine," said Spyro. "Now where do we go?"

"To the new Dragon Temple. Me and Cyril and Volteer built it. It's larger than the old one, and it's more safely located than the old one."

Spyro nodded, but he was still reluctant. "Lead the way."

As they began flying to the new temple, Zyla finally got up and flew to the main part of the prison. She looked for the cell that had held both Spyro and Cynder. But after Spyro's energy blast, all the cells now looked the same.

_Darn it, dragon_, she thought to herself.

There had been no special things in the cell that would have made it easy for her to see it. So what she really had to do was see if she could find the small black dragoness's lifeless body.

She went to a nearby cell and dug through the rubble. Cynder wasn't there. She went to another and dug through the rubble. Once again, she was not there. Then she went to another one and dug through the rubble there.

And there she was. Cynder was lying on the floor of the cell. A small pool of blood formed around her body due to wounds caused by debris.

A smile curled around Zyla's lips. A cold, lifeless smile. A smile that would strike fear into someone's heart.

She picked Cynder up in her claws and carried her off to the dungeon. There she would torture Cynder until the small black dragoness gave up her deepest, darkest secrets. It was cruel to most, but it was nothing but a game to Zyla.


	7. Rescue Team

Chapter 7- Rescue Team

Spyro and Terrador arrived at the new temple just as the sun was beginning to set. The new Dragon Temple was definitely larger than the original. Cyril was standing by the entrance of the temple. His eyes widened when he saw Spyro.

"Well, if it isn't Spyro," Cyril said. "Where's Cynder?"

"She's still imprisoned at the prison, Cyril. It's the only explanation," Terrador said. He said the last part to Spyro. "If she's not here, then she must still be at the prison."

"That's true," Spyro acknowledged. "But then that means that we must go back! Now, Terrador! Because if we don't, then Zyla could find her and torture her to death!"

"We will help her, Spyro, but for now, we must devise a brilliant rescue plan."

"Shall I get Volteer?" asked Cyril.

"Yes, you should." Terrador closed his eyes and sighed. Everything that had happened was taking a toll on him and he was very stressed.

"Terrador, how are you still alive after the siege on the temple?" Spyro inquired. He saw the burns that had been inflicted by Zyla and some of the wounds he had been given by the malignant pink dragoness.

"I think Zyla had thought I was dead, and so she left my body for the buzzards. I awoke hours later to find both of you to be nowhere to be found. That's what led me to realize that you two had been taken by her to a place where she could torture you in."

"How'd you know where the prison was?" Spyro felt like he was telling too many questions, but he kept asking them anyway. He saw Cyril and Volteer standing in front of them.

"I knew that there was an abandoned prison somewhere around where that cheetah city was, and I'd heard tales that the prison was being used for cruel reasons. And so I went there after recovering from the wounds Zyla inflicted upon me," Terrador explained. "When I found it, I forced a guard to tell me if you and Cynder were there. He said yes, and so I went into the prison to find you. I then heard about the execution of a purple dragon, and since you are the only living purple dragon in the world, I knew they were talking about you. You know what happens next."

Spyro nodded. "I need to know how we are going to rescue Cynder," he told the earth guardian.

"I know that we can inflitrate the castle, but that may alert Zyla to our presence. An easier way is to sneak in, but only a dragon of your size can do such a thing. One of my size would be easy to be spotted. What do you think of either of those?"

"The first one would be good, but the problem you said is the only reason it wouldn't be a good idea. The second one is good, but what if I mess up? It would alert Zyla to our presence. Both of our ideas could be good, but there are problems that arise in the thinking of these plans."

"Yes, that is true," Terrador admitted. "But which one do you believe is the best to do?"

"I would say the second one is best," Spyro said. "I just don't want Zyla to be alerted to our presence, because she could kill Cynder in a heartbeat. You've seen how powerful she is, Terrador."

"Yes, I have, but we must stay strong and not lose hope if such a situation does arise. She may not kill her, she may use her as bait. If she does so, I want you to try and sneak up behind her and I'll distract her."

"I agree with the plan. I just wish that we never had to make it."

Terrador sighed and nodded.

"Well, Terrador, I believe this to be one of your best plans ever!" exclaimed Cyril. "Should we accompany you for this?"

"No, I need you both to stay here and guard the temple in case our plan fails and Zyla decides to lay siege upon this temple. Do you understand, Cyril?"

"I do, and I believe Volteer does too," Cyril said.

"Yes, it is a plan I agree most with," Volteer told Terrador. Ever since Malefor had been freed and then defeated once again, the electricity guardian had become stressed and was no longer as energetic as he once had been.

"So Terrador, when do we leave to save Cynder?"

"We will leave at dawn. By the time we are done, it should be noon. Let's just hope that our plan goes through and that we succeed in saving Cynder."

Spyro didn't like the way Terrador had used his words. It was as if Terrador knew they were going to somehow fail, whether it be that they would not be able to rescue Cynder and Zyla would win, or that they would be able to rescue Cynder, but one of them would die while trying to get her out.

But Spyro did know that this was a hard mission to pull off, and that any mistake they made counted against them.

"Terrador, what do we do now?" asked Spyro. "Just go to sleep, and then wait for the morning to come?"

"That would be a smarter solution. But it's still early, and there's still so much to talk about. Tell me all that happened in the prison while you were there."

Spyro breathed deeply, and then began:

"Well, when I woke up in the prison, I looked over and I saw Cynder, unconscious still. She was barely breathing and she was cold as ice. She finally woke up, and then began coughing up blood. Then this troll-like creature came up to the bars of our cell and gave us some food. Afterwards, Zyla came to our cell and told us that love was not real, and that we were wasting our time by being mates. We retaliated, and that was when she told us she was going to set up an execution. At first she said that it was going to be Cynder that would be executed. But when me and her woke the next morning, Zyla told us that instead of Cynder, it would be _me_ who would be executed. She and the troll put a chain around my neck. And you can guess what happened next."

"Just before I rescued you, I saw a large bright light," Terrador told him. "Could you explain that for me?"

"I was building up my strength, and I released an energy blast, which incinerated the troll and injured Zyla," Spyro explained. "I've only done that once in my life before, and that was during my final showdown with Cynder in Convexity. What does this mean, Terrador?"

"I don't know, Spyro," Terrador admitted. "If he were here, I believe Ignitus may have an answer for that."

"Probably. I wish he were still here. You know, when I repaired the world after Malefor had destroyed it, I heard Ignitus's voice telling me that when a dragon died, their spirit does not truly leave the world, that it lives on, binding itself with nature, offering hope to the future. How do you think that was able to happen?"

"This is not a question that you should ask me. One of these days, I'd suggest that you take a trip to the White Isle and ask the Chronicler about this."

"Yeah, I probably should. So do you think that we should go ahead and get some sleep for tomorrow?"

"We probably should. Tomorrow is a day that we cannot make a mistake on. All of you need sleep. Go, now!" Terrador went inside the temple. Spyro decided that he would go ahead and sleep out on the balcony. It seemed almost as if he were home, as he, the Guardians, his foster brother, Sparx, and, though only for a short while, Cynder had lived here soon after Spyro had saved Cynder from Malefor's corruption.

Cyril and Volteer followed Terrador, and the door that led to the inside of the temple closed. Spyro lay down and curled up in the middle of the balcony.

He thought of Cynder. Tomorrow he would be reunited with her, and then they could live their lives normally. But Zyla would still be a problem. Just before he fell asleep, his last thought was of Cynder and his last emotions were love and hope.


	8. Torture

Chapter 8- Torture

Cynder opened her eyes. She saw that, surrounding her, were what looked like a bunch of meat hooks.

She recoiled. Seeing what was in there made her think of her past, and the way she tortured those that she did not kill while she was under Malefor's corruption. It had been by using hooks and knives, and in the end, the victim was always killed, even if they gave up their secret.

Cynder felt pain in her wing. She looked over at it and saw a large rip in it. She remembered that it came from her cell being destroyed by Spyro's energy blast.

Then a thought came to her mind: Where was Spyro? Had he escaped the prison, or was he still around here too?

Then she heard Zyla's voice. "Awake, are you?" she drawled. "Good. I was hoping that you'd wake up sooner or later. After all, I think it's time that you know what it truly feels like to be tortured."

"Where is Spyro, Zyla?" Cynder demanded.

"Oh don't worry," she said. "He escaped, with the help of that large green oaf, Terrador. I can't believe he's still alive. I thought that after my raid on that temple he was dead, and so I left his body for the buzzards. But it seems that I was wrong about that. He must have only been severely unconscious. I'll never forgive myself for this. Anyway, it's time that we get on to business, Cynder, don't you think so?"

Cynder looked down and saw a chain around her neck. She couldn't feel it, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to really get out of it. The chain was connected to a hook on the ceiling.

"You know, Cynder," Zyla continued, "maybe I should just reveal everything to you. I bet you never guessed, but it was because of me that you came to Kasi to help the cheetah warriors. They could have won without your help. But, of course, Chief Prowlus never knew that. So he sent the letter, and you and Spyro decided to come and help the warriors against me and my army. But the both of you were not expecting me to put up such a fight when you got there. The cheetah warriors actually would have won the battle without losing so many lives. The only reason my army never stopped that messenger was because I wanted you and Spyro to come. If you hadn't, then I wouldn't be having as much fun as I am right now. I wanted my revenge against you and Spyro for forever sealing away my master, and now I will get it. Before I kill you, Cynder, could you answer me just one question?"

"Let me go instead!" Cynder yelled.

"My question is: Which one of us is the fisherman and which one of us is the fish?" Zyla took a fish-hook in her claws and went down to where Cynder was chained. She stabbed the hook into Cynder's shoulder.

"ARGHH!" screamed Cynder, the pain almost too unbearable for her. Then Zyla made the hook rise up to the ceiling, the hook still in Cynder's shoulder.

Blood streamed down Cynder's shoulder and fell onto the floor. Zyla laughed. It was a cold, evil laugh that had no sense of emotion in it. The more Cynder screamed, the more Zyla laughed.

Cynder also felt tears streaming down her face. She just wanted the pain to stop, for it to end. She would even allow Zyla to kill her just to make the unbearable pain stop.

But Cynder knew that this torture wasn't going to end anytime soon. Zyla was going to keep torturing her until Cynder finally died of blood loss.

"PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!" Cynder cried. "I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE, JUST MAKE IT STOP!"

"I don't think I'll stop it until you spill every last dark secret your body holds," Zyla told her. "And if you don't tell me anything, I'll just keep the pain going for you. Do you understand?" Cynder didn't answer. "I SAID, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"

Cynder still didn't answer. Zyla felt like she was going to kill the small black dragoness, but she wanted Spyro to see the dragoness he loved die right in front of him.

But how long would that take? She knew that Spyro would return, but it take a long time for him to do so. She shrugged, and then decided she would keep torturing Cynder for the time being.

Cynder's vision flickered as the pain intensified. Soon enough she would give up and would finally die.

But she didn't want to die. Not without telling Spyro that she loved him. She wanted her mate to know what he truly meant to her. For a moment she thought, and then realized that she didn't even know what she truly meant to Spyro. Not at all.

But she wouldn't die here. She would make sure of that. She would live through all of this, and she would defeat Zyla once and for all.

Zyla began to laugh again. Cynder couldn't stand it. She knew that she had to escape somehow, but the problem was, how could she do it? Zyla was torturing her almost every second, and right behind Zyla seemed to be the door that Cynder could use to escape.

Cynder finally concluded that there was no way to escape. She would have to wait until Spyro came.

More and more of her blood dripped from her shoulder to the ground. Cynder averted her gaze, being unable to look at the red pool under her.

Ancestors, even if I do die, just let me see Spyro again, Cynder silently prayed. I don't care if I die, I just want to see the dragon that I love again!

She wasn't surprised by what Zyla had told her, but she was angered by it. Spyro had been right, they shouldn't have gone. Why hadn't she listened to him?

Zyla reached up to the chains and cut them using her sharp claws. Cynder hit the ground hard. The hook, which was still in her shoulder, dug in deeper due to the force of the impact.

Cynder let out a whimper.

"Misery, misery, misery," Zyla taunted. "I'm taking back that part with me telling you that I'll let Spyro see you alive once before you die. I'm just going to kill you now. What do you think of that, Cynder?"

Cynder grunted. Zyla wrapped her claws around her neck, and began to squeeze. "I'm not going to die," she gasped. "I'm gonna leave this place, and I'm going to leave it alive. You can do nothing about it."

Zyla began growling and grinding her teeth. "Why do you live?" she hissed.

"Because I have something worth living for."

Zyla screamed and slapped Cynder across the face, leaving five long, bloody scratches. "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LIVE FOR! YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A SAD, DEFENSELESS FREAK THAT HAS NOTHING TO LIVE FOR! SPYRO SAYS THAT HE LOVES YOU, BUT WHAT YOU DO NOT REALIZE IS THAT HE WILL ALWAYS USE YOU AS A PAWN! DO YOU NOW REALIZE THAT, OR WILL YOU JUST BELIEVE LIES?"

"I do realize one thing, Zyla," Cynder gasped.

"And what exactly is that?"

"How stupid you are." Cynder gave a small smirk. But it was painful due to the scars on her face.

The fire in Zyla's eyes went beyond that of a wildfire. It was unexplainable.

Zyla's claws dug into Cynder's neck, drawing small drops of blood. Cynder winced. She had never felt so much pain in her life. The second most amount of pain she had ever felt was during her final showdown with Spyro back when she was under Malefor's corruption in the realm of Convexity.

Zyla could see the pain reflected in Cynder's emerald eyes. It made her feel glee. The glee was unexpected, but it definitely felt great to her.

Cynder didn't care what Zyla felt, the only thing on her mind was Spyro.

Oh Spyro, where the heck are you? Cynder thought.

Finally Zyla released her grip on Cynder's neck. Cynder gasped as she began to breathe normally again. But the fish-hook was still in her shoulder.

But the bit of relief left in her left as soon as Zyla once again wrapped her claws around her neck. And then the malignant pink dragoness put her tail (which, like Cynder's, had a blade on the end) on the part of Cynder's chest where her heart was.

Obviously, Zyla wasn't going to hesitate to kill her. This just made her as evil as Malefor. And maybe even more evil. Malefor had never wanted to kill either Spyro or Cynder until after they got past his mind games and revealed what they truly stood for.

But Zyla would probably have wanted to kill her no matter what happened. Even if she had said that she wanted to join her, Zyla would have still killed her.

But Cynder would see Spyro again, she knew that she would. In the end her love for him would prevail and Zyla would be defeated once and for all.

Cynder gritted her teeth and clawed Zyla across the face. Blood streamed down. Zyla screamed once again. Cynder almost dodged out of the way as Zyla raised her tail and stabbed it down. The blade sliced across the middle of her chest. It was a small cut and was not too serious.

She got out of Zyla's hold. Some of Zyla's claws had left marks on her neck. Cynder grasped the fish-hook in her shoulder and, with much pain, ripped it out. The wound bled freely and she knew that she would need to get it patched up before too long, or she could die of blood loss. She had already lost a lot of blood due to the fish-hook and some of the wounds inflicted on her by Zyla.

Putting her paw on the wound, Cynder opened her wings and was about to fly when Zyla swiped at Cynder and knocked her into a stone pillar, knocking her out.

Zyla stood over the unmoving body of her enemy. She would not yet kill her, but she would kill her as soon as Spyro saw the unconscious body of his mate. Zyla couldn't wait to sink her claws into Cynder's heart and rip it out of her chest. She would win this battle, and neither Spyro nor Cynder could do anything to stop her.


	9. To the Castle

Chapter 9- To the Castle

Spyro and Terrador were getting ready to fly to the castle to save Cynder. They both hoped to get to the castle before Zyla could do anything to Cynder.

Spyro was putting on his armor in the training room when Terrador walked in. Terrador looked at the middle of the room, where in the old Temple, a statue of Malefor before his corruption had stood.

"I think that, after this, we should put a statue of you and Cynder there," said Terrador. "It would only be right, after all that you and Cynder have gone through. Are going through."

"You can do that if you wish," Spyro told him. "Truthfully, I don't care as much about that. I don't know about Cynder though. She might want that."

Terrador let out one of his small and deep laughs. Like most of the other laughs he had ever released, they were not very emotionally filled.

"So are you ready to go yet, Spyro?" Terrador finally asked after a few moments of uncomftorable silence.

"I am," Spyro told him, having just put on the last main piece of armor. "We need to hurry, so come on."

They ran to the balcony, where Cyril stood.

"Going now?" he asked them.

"Yes, we are," Terrador answered. "Cyril, I want you to contact the cheetah village in Avalar and tell them what has happened and where me and Spyro are going. We will need some help when we get to the castle."

"I will do just that, Terrador," Cyril pledged. "I hope all goes well, and that when you come back, none of you will be seriously harmed in any way."

Terrador and Spyro opened their wings and began to fly north towards the castle. Spyro was determined to save the dragoness he loved, and no one would get in his way. He would do anything for Cynder. He would even give up his own life for her.

"Hunter is going to meet us there," said Terrador.

"Why?"

"I told him that we would need help, and he said that he would help us in any way that he could against Zyla. He will be helping me outside while you are inside, searching for Cynder. When you and her get out of the castle, I shall release a fury that will shatter the entire castle. If that doesn't kill Zyla, then we will have to battle her ourselves."

"We'll have to kill her, now won't we?"

Terrador hung his head. "I am sorry to say this, but yes, we will. The only reason I didn't kill Cynder when she was under the Dark Master's control was because she was not only stronger than I was under his control, but I knew that she wasn't serving him faithfully. I knew Malefor had corrupted her. But Zyla would have lost all of Malefor's corruption with as much of a beating as you have given her. This obviously means she serves the Dark Master more faithfully than anyone. And this makes her an even tougher opponent."

Spyro nodded. "I will do my best to end her, Terrador," he said. "You can trust me on that. She hurt Cynder, and no one hurts the dragoness I love."

Terrador nodded at the young purple dragon's statement. He agreed, but also thought it might be a little hard-hearted for him.

After hours of silence and flying, just as the tiredness began to grow on them, the castle came into sight.

"There it is," growled Spyro. "Time to get back the dragoness I love."

They neared a small hill. Hunter, wearing a black cloak, stood there, his quiver slung across his shoulder.

"It is good to see you again, Spyro," he greeted. "Though I wish this meeting could be under better circumstances."

"You and me both," Spyro grumbled.

"So are we going to begin the battle or not, Terrador?" asked a voice behind Spyro and Hunter.

They turned around to see a female cheetah and a small army coming towards them. Spyro could tell that she was the new chief of the village in Avalar. Her fur was golden with few spots. Her jay-colored eyes missed nothing. She held a staff in her left hand.

"I am the new chief for the tribe," she announced. "My name is Mara."

"Hello," greeted Spyro.

"You must be Spyro. It is an honor to meet you." She bowed to her knees in front of him.

"There is no need to bow to me," he said. "All we really need to do right now is to plan out how to do this. How are you guys going to distract the guards while I inflitrate the castle and look for Cynder?"

"I will begin the distraction," volunteered Hunter. "I will shoot one of the guards with my arrows, and once one of the other guards see what has happened, they will sound the alarm, I am sure of it. Once that happens, I believe we all will charge towards the castle and attack. This should give you enough of a distraction to enter the castle."

"I like it. Terrador, will you be supplying aerial attacks?" asked Spyro.

"Yes," he answered. "I will make sure that none of the guards try to kill any of you from up on the roof. I believe it is time I tell you all of my plan after Spyro gets Cynder out safely."

"What is it, Terrador?" asked Mara, seeing a look of sadness upon his face.

"After he gets Cynder out of the castle, I will release a very powerful fury that will obliterate the castle," he explained to those who did not know.

Spyro still wondered why he had the look of sadness on his face. There was nothing sad about his plan. Or was the sad look meant for something else? He did not know, but he wanted to.

"I agree with this plan, Terrador," announced Mara.

"As do I," said Hunter.

"What do we do now, Terrador?" asked Spyro.

"For now all of you rest. I shall keep watch. As soon as night comes, we shall attack."

Spyro looked up at the sky. It was nearing twilight. But Terrador was right; he needed more rest.

He lay down on the ground and put his head on his paws. As his eyes drooped, his last thought was of Cynder. He hoped that he could save her.

Spyro suddenly felt somebody shaking him. He looked up to see Hunter, who was holding his bow in his other hand.

"What is it, Hunter?"

"The battle is about to begin," Hunter answered. "We need you. As soon as we begin attacking them, you must find a way into the castle, then continue into the dungeons and find Cynder. Get out of the castle as fast as you can, and then we will continue from there. Do you understand?"

Spyro nodded. "Let's do this!" He opened his wings and flapped them a few times. He was ready to get back the dragoness he loved.

"Okay. Want me to do it now, Terrador?" Hunter asked.

"Yes," the guardian answered.

Hunter raised his bow, nocked an arrow, and aimed it at a faint, fuzzy outline on the top of the castle.

Spyro knew the cheetah could see the soldier better due to his night vision, which was given to all cheetahs.

Hunter released the arrow, and Spyro saw it streak across the sky. After a few seconds, Spyro heard a scream off in the distance. He suddenly saw a fuzzy outline fall off the castle. Then another voice yelled, "Assassins! From the north! Assassins from the north!"

And that was when Spyro heard Zyla's cold, drawling voice.

"Where?" she roared.

"Out there, to the north, your majesty!" the soldier yelled back.

"Then get the army, go out there, and find the assassins, will you?" Zyla screeched. "I am going to check on the prisoner."

It was then that Spyro heard the soldier ordering something inaudible. The sound of a drawbridge opening reached everyone's ears. Spyro knew that the battle had begun.

He turned to Terrador. "It's time, isn't it?"

"It is," answered the guardian.

"I have to go now," Spyro announced.

Just as he began to fly into the air, Terrador stopped him.

"Spyro," he said.

Spyro turned around. "Yeah?"

"Be careful." Terrador seemed to have a small bit of unknown emotion in his eyes.

Spyro nodded, and then flew toward the castle. He had to enter the castle from the roof. Going from the main entrance was too risky. Any of the soldiers could stop him if he entered that way.

As he reached the castle's roof, he saw a small amount of soldiers there. He breathed a burning torrent of fire that incinerated all of them before they could yell out.

He saw a trapdoor in the middle of the roof. If he was to enter without causing too much noise, that would be his best bet.

He reared up and formed into his comet dash. He broke right through the trapdoor and found himself inside the castle. He could hear soldiers' yells from the main hall. It seemed they were all going out into the open to battle Terrador, Hunter, Mara, and the cheetah army.

He went to the edge of the end of a wall and peered over the side. He saw the last of the army disappearing out the entrance. The drawbridge began to close and then once it had closed all the way, it left Spyro in almost complete darkness.

Spyro looked around, and then knew that he had to get down to the dungeon so that he could find Cynder.

As he made his way, he thought, _I will find you, Cynder_!


	10. Dungeons

Chapter 10- Dungeons

Spyro made his way down a dark hall. He knew that the dungeons were always in the deepest, darkest parts of a castle. Now all he had to do was find his way.

When he reached the end of the hall, he saw two large wooden doors. He walked over to them and pushed them open. It was hard, as not only were they large, they were very heavy. After a minute of pushing as hard as he could, he finally succeeded in doing so.

He entered the dark room and looked around. He then realized that he had made it to the dungeons.

Hooks and other torture instruments were on the walls. Many of them seemed to have dried blood on them. Spyro hoped none of it was Cynder's.

The dungeons were lit just barely by a few torches that hung from brackets on the walls. Spyro could not see very well. He knew that he had to find Cynder soon, and he had to do so before Zyla came down here. Or was she already down here? Spyro cringed at that thought.

He looked in the cells, hoping to see the small black dragoness he loved, but he was soon halfway done and he had still not found Cynder. Where was she?

He did his best not to think of the worst things that could have happened, but they still continued to creep up on him.

A few minutes later, Spyro had looked through all but two of the cells, and still no Cynder. He braced himself for whatever he would see in the cells, and then looked in them both. But Cynder was not in either of them. Tears began to form in Spyro's eyes. Where was Cynder?

Then he saw the wooden door in front of him. It had a metal lock on the side, but the lock was not in place. Spyro, curious, went over to the door and slowly opened it.

When he was done opening it, he looked around. He saw more and more meat hooks. One of them was dripping with fresh blood. Spyro was now alarmed.

Then he heard the whimper. He looked down and saw a small black shape moving. Whimpers could be heard, as could groans of deep and terrible pain.

"Please, stay away! No more torture, please!" the dark shape said. Spyro sighed with relief. It was Cynder.

"Cynder, it's just me," he told her. "There's nothing to be afraid of."

"Spyro?" Cynder whispered, her voice rasping with fatigue. She looked up at him and then hugged him softly.

Spyro looked her over, and was alarmed even more when he saw the wound on her shoulder and the scars on her face. "Cynder, your shoulder! And you also have scars on your face! What happened?"

"Zyla tortured me. She put one of the meat hooks in my shoulder and scratched me across the face. Just before you came, she was about to do it again, but then she heard that there was a disturbance. Was that you?"

"It was. Me, Terrador, Hunter, and the new leader of the cheetah tribe from Avalar, Mara. We all came to rescue you," he explained. "We're going to get you out."

Cynder's eyes shone with tears. She hugged Spyro again softly. Then she said, "What if we come across Zyla?"

"Then we'll have to fight her as well as we can. There would be no point in trying to run, she would just go after us again. And we can't risk you being injured even more, Cyn. Do you understand?"

"I do," she told him. She looked down for a second. "Should we start getting out of here now, do you think?"

"I think so. Do you need any help walking?"

"Because the meat hook was in my shoulder, I'm unable to put too much weight on my right leg. I'll be needing some help."

"Alright, that's understandable. Just lean on me."

She did so, and with help from him, they began to move out of the dungeon.

But just as they were rounding another corner, ten guards came into view. Both Spyro and Cynder stopped.

"Oh crap," Spyro whispered.

"I agree," Cynder said back.

"Trying to escape, eh?" hissed one of the guards. "Well, that's not gonna be happening at all!"

"That's what you think!" Cynder hissed back at him. She breathed deeply, then released a torrent of shadow flame that went right through his armor.

The guard screamed. He ran around the others for a second, and then fell to his knees, gasped for breath and died.

Spyro looked over at Cynder. She was wheezing. Obviously that attack had taken most of her strength. Spyro moved closer to her to protect her.

He breathed a torrent of fire that caused most of the guards to jump back. Spyro realized that most of the guards didn't want to fight. They had either been forced by Zyla to do this, or they were enslaved.

One of the guards had been killed by the flames, and another was wounded. That left seven to fight. Spyro looked over at a pillar and channeled his earth breath. He shot it at the pillar. One of the guards ducked as it whizzed over his head. The blast of earth hit the pillar and broke it. The ceiling above was about to collapse. Spyro could see that because of the dust and the pieces of rock that fell from it. He knew both he and Cynder were in danger, and they had to get out of there before the ceiling collapsed and they had to get out of the castle before Zyla could find them and then kill them.

Spyro breathed ice onto the guards and watched as they froze in place. None of them could move, and when they finally could, they would be crushed by the collapsing ceiling. Then he hurried out of the hall. Cynder was still wheezing from using up some of her energy. If Cynder had no energy left in her and Zyla confronted them, Cynder would be powerless and that would make her an easy kill for Zyla. Spyro did not want that to happen to Cynder at all.

Spyro could see a small bit of light ahead of them. That gave him a small bit of hope. He looked over to Cynder. She was still breathing slowly.

"Cynder, I think we're almost there! Just keep holding on, everything will be okay!" he told her.

But just as they turned the corner, Zyla stepped out of the shadows and stepped in front of them. Her eyes were a wildfire.

"If only life were that easy, little dragon!" she snarled at Spyro. "It's time you learn how complicated life can be!"

Spyro saw Cynder raise her head a little and then heard her say, "Bring it."

Zyla's lips twitched and got into a defensive stance. She said, "With pleasure."


	11. Fire, Shadow, and Death

Chapter 11- Fire, Shadow, and Death

Spyro was looking between both Zyla and Cynder. Zyla was rearing up, readying herself for the battle.

"Cynder, please don't do this!" Spyro said. "You're injured enough as it is. Just run. I'll beat Zyla. All you need to do is run for your life. Go find Terrador and the others and get the heck out of here."

"I don't think that's gonna be happening," snarled Zyla. "The both of you are going to die, and once that happens, there will be nobody left to stop me from pulling off my master plan!" She laughed.

It was a high cold laugh that had no emotion in it. It was the same laugh Zyla had always used. It was almost as if she had no emotion in her at all.

"What is your master plan?" asked Cynder.

"I'm not going to tell you. You don't deserve to know. You deserve to die more than anything."

Spyro could see that Cynder's sides were still heaving. How much energy had the attack she used on the guards taken out of her? He was afraid that if she engaged in the battle with Zyla and used too much energy, then she could die of exhaustion.

That was why he was going to help her out with the battle. He got into his defensive stance and stood closer to her. He would not let his mate die. Especially not by the hand of Zyla.

Zyla spat a ball of dark fire at Cynder, who dodged just in time. Spyro returned the favor by releasing a torrent of red-orange flames. Zyla dodged.

"Crap," Spyro whispered to himself. "This sucks."

"Oh, you have no idea!" hissed Zyla. "I'm surprised and mad that none of you have died yet!"

Cynder disappeared and reappeared right next to Zyla, who had blinked just as she disappeared. Spyro realized Cynder had used her shadow dash to confuse Zyla. Cynder breathed shadow at Zyla and then clawed Zyla's side.

Blood dripped from the wound Cynder had caused. Just as Zyla whirled around, Cynder disappeared and reappeared next to Spyro. She was breathing heavily, her chest and sides heaving.

"Cynder, are you okay?" Spyro asked her.

"I'm okay," she answered. "Let's just finish this and get the heck out of here."

Zyla whirled around again, wincing at the pain the side wound was causing her.

"WHY YOU LITTLE DOG!" roared Zyla. "I'M GOING TO TEAR YOU APART, LIMB BY LIMB! YOU'RE GOING TO BE DEAD BEFORE YOU KNOW IT!"

Cynder just laughed. "I don't think that's going to be happening. Me and Spyro are still filled with a lot of energy. If you try to kill us, then we can just fly out of your reach. Your wounds will probably stop you from coming after us."

Zyla was the one to laugh this time. "You are injured, too, Cynder," she told her, pointing out the wounds both she and the meat hook had caused. "You will also be slowed down by your wounds. And the amount of blood loss caused by the new wounds I shall cause will make you so weak that I can kill you."

Spyro felt enraged. "I won't let you kill her, or even wound her!" he yelled. "She will get out of here alive, as will I."

Zyla snarled. She leaped at Cynder, who was expecting the attack. Zyla raked her claws along Cynder's back, leaving deep gashes. Cynder gritted her teeth, trying to go against the pain. Spyro shot a blast of fire at Zyla.

The blast hit Zyla's leg, blackening it. Zyla shrieked in pain. Spyro smiled grimly, which scared Cynder. Spyro had never done such a thing. He was usually the one that had a bit of pity for those that he was fighting. The one exception had been Malefor, who was purly evil and whom Spyro would never forgive for corrupting Cynder. Cynder wouldn't show pity for Malefor either.

Cynder dashed over to Zyla, jumped up, and clawed the malignant pink dragoness in the left wing. Zyla shrieked once more as the thin membrane was torn. Blood dripped from the five tears.

Spyro looked down at Cynder's feet and saw a little bit of blood. He realized that was her blood. There was also blood on her claws, but Spyro believed that was Zyla's blood.

Cynder, angry at Zyla for causing everything that had happened, released a stream of shadow, which Zyla in the left side of her face. Roar after roar ripped from Zyla's lips as the pain intensified.

That side of her face became blackened. All that could still be seen was a bit of pink on her snout and around her eye, as well as her blood-red eye.

Now Zyla had been pushed to the limit. It was time she ended this fight, once and for all.

* * *

><p>Terrador was speeding through the air, breathing Earth at the enemies below. Though many of them had been defeated, there were still many of them left.<p>

He saw Hunter standing on a hill, shooting arrows at the soldiers that followed Zyla. Mara stood behind him, beheading or stabbing to death the enemies that managed to get up on the hill. She looked over at Terrador, then called out to him.

"Terrador, how much longer must we do this?" she yelled.

"We must keep doing this until Spyro finds Cynder," he roared back. "Hopefully that will be soon. We cannot take much more of this; there are too many of them. If we don't find the general of this army soon, and I don't mean Zyla, then we will be overrun and killed. Or imprisoned, tortured and then killed. Either way, we will be killed. Just keep holding on, Mara. It should all be over soon. Just keep trusting me, Mara!"

"I'm doing as well as I can!"

Hunter was running out of arrows. The battle definitely needed to be ended soon. Where was Spyro? Had he found Cynder yet? Or had Zyla cornered him? If that had happened, then there would most certainly be a fight going on at the moment.

He shot an arrow at one of the soldiers, which caught them in the throat. He heard Mara grunt behnd him. But he couldn't look away. Doing such a thing could get him killed, and he would not risk that.

Just as Hunter shot another arrow, one of the soldiers leaped up onto the hill and stabbed Hunter in the side. Hunter clutched that spot, feeling the blood spreading, and fell to his knees. Mara beheaded the soldier and then crouched down next to Hunter.

"Terrador, we need you to clear all these soldiers from the side of this hill! Hunter has been wounded!" she roared to the Earth guardian.

Terrador heard the new cheetah tribe leader and first cleared all the soldiers underneath him out. He then turned around and blasted all the soldiers that were there at the hill. He saw Hunter crouching, holding the wound. Mara was crouching next to him. Terrador decided to fly over to the hill.

He landed next to the two cheetah warriors. "How is the wound, Hunter?" he asked.

"It hurts," Hunter answered. "I'm doing my best to pinch the wound. It keeps bleeding freely. I believe that I need to rest now, Terrador. But if I do, I do not know whether the soldiers will come up here and kill me or Mara or whoever it is that will guard me."

"I am going to end this battle right now. Do not worry," Terrador told them.

"How will you do that?" exclaimed Mara. "There are many soldiers! This plan may end some of them, but how do you know that you'll end all of them, Terrador?"

"I don't know. But I must try. If I don't, we will most certainly be overrun and killed. This is something I must try, Mara. Do you want to die, Mara?"

"No, but if your plan does not work, how do we know that the soldiers still won't overrun us?"

Terrador didn't answer. He had to try the plan. If it failed, he would be regretting even thinking of it for the rest of his life.

He opened his wings and flew over to where the soldiers all stood. He flew into the middle and snarled at the soldiers. They laughed, and that was when Terrador decided to make his move.

He closed his eyes, drew upon all his strength, and finally opened his eyes and released the energy.

A blast of earth flew in all directions in the form of a fury. It either vaporized or crushed the soldiers, as the fury was also filled with rocks.

When he was done, Terrador looked around and saw that the soldiers were all gone. He then saw that the fury had hit the castle with full force.

His eyes widened and realized that it would cause the castle to begin to fall apart. With Spyro and Cynder inside.

"Oh crap."

* * *

><p>Cynder winced at her pain. Both her and Zyla were severely wounded. Gashes lined Cynder's back, and burn's covered most of Zyla's body. Cynder shot a blast of shadow fire, but Zyla dodged it. After Spyro's flame attack, the right side of Zyla's face was terribly burned. Besides some of her snout, below her eye, and her eye itself, the flames had blackened all of that side of her face.<p>

Blood created a small pool at Zyla's feet, and the same went for Cynder. Cynder felt herself weakening, and she knew that soon enough, she would be too weak to continue in this battle and Zyla would finally be able to win. Just as she was about to give up, she saw Spyro standing beside her, and she thought, _I must do this for Spyro!_

Even her thoughts had slowed down due to exhaustion. Her limbs ached terribly and her wings felt as if they were going to fall off.

Zyla blew a torrent of scalding flames that Cynder was just barely able to dodge. Cynder retaliated with her own torrent of dark flames. The two bursts of flame collided with each other. They stayed even, and then Zyla suddenly stopped. Cynder stopped also to catch her breath. She took a glance up at Zyla, who was breathing heavily.

"You're never going to win, Zyla!" Cynder snarled. "This is where you meet your end, you evil, malignant creation of a creature!"

Zyla laughed at the insult. "You think so?" she drawled. "I think not. In fact, I believe that this is where YOU meet your end, Cynder, you puny black dragoness!"

Cynder let out a roar and lunged at Zyla. Cynder clawed at Zyla's back, her claws raking right through flesh and even scratching the bone.

Zyla tried to shake Cynder off, but it was no use; Cynder had too good of a hold on her. Then Zyla rose up and released a fury of dark flames. Cynder flew into a pillar. Her vision flickered.

Spyro ran over to Cynder. "Are you okay?" he asked. His eyes were deep with worry. Cynder looked up at him. Her wounds were terrible.

Zyla's wounds were also terrible. She was moving towards Spyro, ready to deal the death blow. But then one of the wounds inflicted upon her began to sting. The pain became very unbearable. She cried out and then fleed.

Spyro turned around and saw that Zyla was no where behind him. It seemed that he and Cynder had won.

"We did it, Cynder!" he told her. "We won! Just hold on! I'll get you out of here! Just hold on, please!" Cynder gasped and did her best to stand up. Spyro helped her. "Just lean on my shoulder, Cyn." She did so, and they began making their way out of the dungeons.

Spyro did his best to make his way to the main entrance. He hoped he was going the right way. That was when he saw the two large doors in front of them. He smiled; they had made it to the entrance and now they could get out of the castle and leave it behind forever.

But then Spyro felt the entire castle shake. He saw parts of the walls crumble and some stained glass windows shattered from the top. That was when he realized what the entire shaking had been caused by: Terrador had released a fury to end the battle that had probably begun as soon as Spyro had entered the castle.

"Oh crap!" he exclaimed.

"What?" rasped Cynder, her throat dry.

"I think Terrador just went a bit too overboard. He released a fury, and now the entire castle is crumbling!" he explained.

"Oh my God. What do we do?" she asked.

"We need to get the heck out of here! Now! If we don't then we'll be crushed and killed. Come on, hurry as much as you can."

"I'm trying, but I'm badly wounded. If I go too fast, then I may give out."

Spyro nodded and did what he could to go fast and not hurt Cynder at the same time. It was a challenge, but he was going to do his best to do it. He loved her too much. He would never let her go.

Pillars began to crack. Soon they would fall and the ceiling would collapse. Spyro hurried the pace a bit more.

Cynder gasped suddenly and then she fell to the ground. Cynder realized suddenly that what was happening now and the end of the fight just minutes before had been a part of her dreams. She hoped that what was happening now did not end like the dream version.

Spyro looked down at his mate. He then looked over at the two doors and blasted them open. Now it was time to get her out. The ceiling began to crumble as two of the pillars gave way. Spyro looked back down at his mate.

"Cynder, I'm going to get you out of here, just hold on!" he gasped. "I'm going to use my Earth Breath to get you out of here."

"Just leave me," she rasped. "Go now, without me."

"Not in a million years, Cynder!" he yelled at her "I'd rather die than watch you die here, helpless and weak, you know that, Cynder!"

Spyro picked her up gently and put her in front of the opening where the doors had been. He then breathed a blast of Earth that knocked her out of the castle. Cynder felt the blast, but it wasn't as painful as it could have been. Spyro had made it more gentle. Cynder slowly got up, her wounds hurting more than ever, making it harder than usual.

"Cynder!" She heard Terrador's voice, but she no longer cared. She looked back into the castle, where Spyro still stood.

"Spyro!" she yelled. She could see the entire castle was just seconds from collapsing.

Spyro opened his wings ready to dash out of the collapsing castle, but then a huge chunk of the ceiling broke off and barred the opening. Then suddenly the whole ceiling collapsed along with the castle. Cynder could only watch in horror as it happened, her mate still inside the castle.

"SPYRO!" she cried. "SPYRO! SPYRO!"

But it was useless. It seemed, almost impossibly, that the dragon she loved, Spyro, was dead.


	12. Anger and Sadness

Chapter 12- Anger and Sadness

Tears dripped from Cynder's eyes. How could it even be possible? Spyro was dead, but it didn't seem right! How could it have happened? Cynder began to sob harder and harder. Suddenly a clear, cold laugh cut through the air. She looked at the ruins what once had been Zyla's castle and saw a pink dragon bust through the rubble.

Anger passed through Cynder when she realized that the pink dragon was Zyla. That monster had survived, but Spyro hadn't. It was madnees. Cynder could barely take it anymore. It was overwhelming, the emotions that she felt. It was a mixture of anger and sadness mixed into one.

She heard someone coming up behind her. She turned around to see Terrador, Mara, and Hunter. Hunter, was still clutching his wound, which had stopped bleeding but still hurt terribly. But Cynder did not care about this. All she cared about was finding out why Terrador had released the fury that had cost Spyro his own life.

"Why the heck did you do it, Terrador?" she cried.

Terrador didn't need anybody to tell him what Cynder meant. He understood perfectly.

"Cynder, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that-" he began, but then Cynder cut him off with a growl.

"YOU ARE THE REASON WHY HE IS DEAD, TERRADOR!" she roared. "IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU, NOT ZYLA! IF NOT FOR YOU AND THAT DARNED FURY THAT YOU RELEASED, THEN SPYRO WOULD STILL BE ALIVE! TELL ME, WHY THE HECK DID YOU RELEASE THAT FURY?"

Terrador sighed; he had been expecting this to happen.

"I only did it because I, Mara, and Hunter were about to be overrun by Zyla's soldiers," he explained calmly. "I had to either lose my life or end the battle."

"BUT WHEN YOU RELEASED THAT FURY, IT HIT THE CASTLE, CAUSING IT TO COLLAPSE! DID YOU MEAN FOR THAT TO HAPPEN, TERRADOR? DID YOU?"

"No, I didn't. It was an accident. I didn't know how powerful that fury was going to be. It's been years since I last used one. I used much energy trying to release it, and now I realize that I did not need to release so much energy."

"BUT WHEN YOU REALIZED THAT, IT WAS ALREADY TOO LATE! THE FURY HAD HIT THE CASTLE ALREADY! AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!"

Terrador nodded. "I do know that it was a large mistake I made. I hoped that you would forgive me, but I guess I made a mistake there too. I have done a large wrong to you, Cynder, and for that, I am deeply sorry. Spyro meant more to you than anyone, and because of me, you cannot cherish that any longer."

Hunter came forward. "I agree with Terrador, Cynder," he told the black dragoness before him. "He has made a mistake, and you shall probably not forgive him for a very long time, which is understandable. But I must ask: Will you ever forgive him?"

"No, I won't!" Cynder seemed to have calmed down a little, but it was easy to tell she was still angry. And no one there could really blame her for it. "It's because of him Spyro is dead!" Tears spilled out of her emerald eyes. "I will never forgive the one who caused the death of the dragon I loved!" Cynder fell to her knees and began to sob. "I can't even live anymore, thanks to you!"

"Cynder, please don't say that!" said Mara, who was the most sympathetic for the black dragoness. "There are plenty of reasons to live even if you no longer have the one you truly love."

"And how the heck would you know that, Mara?" Cynder snapped at the new cheetah tribe leader.

Mara sighed. "I wouldn't," she admitted. "But I do know that what I am saying is the truth. Please, just don't say or believe that if you have lost the one you truly love that you do not have anything left to live for. Promise me this, Cynder."

Cynder's tears flowed down her face. She sobbed harder than ever. Mara sat next to her and put her hand on Cynder's shoulder. Cynder was obviously about to go into a depression. Hunter, Terrador, and Mara wanted to stop that from happening, but how would that be able to happen? Everything they said seemed to make Cynder either angrier or sadder. None of them knew whether what they wanted to say would offend her.

Though depression was beginning to settle over her, Cynder felt rage not only at Terrador but at Zyla. If it hadn't been for Zyla, then maybe they could've gotten out of the castle before it collapsed. And that was why she was going to do it. She would chase after Zyla, find her, and kill her.

Cynder dried her eyes and then got up and stared straight into Terrador's eyes. The eyes did not show any emotion in them, which made Cynder even angrier. The eyes couldn't even show emotion for this.

"I'm leaving, and you can't stop me, Terrador!" she told him.

"Where are you going, Cynder?" he asked calmly.

"I'm going after Zyla, and you cannot stop me, so don't even try. If you do, then you will be stopped."

Terrador blinked and looked away. "If that is your choice, then go right ahead," he said. "I did not even think of stopping you."

Cynder wondered why he was doing this, but then she didn't care anymore. It was time that she ended this. She opened her wings, ignoring the pain caused by the tears caused by Zyla. She jumped up into the air and flew across the ground. She was going to get her revenge on Zyla, and no one could stop her from extracting this revenge. Tears came to her eyes as she thought of Spyro. He was dead now, and there was no way to reverse that. The only thing she could do now was kill Zyla.

She was going to get her revenge, and no one was going to be able to stop her. This was where everything was going to end, now and forever.


	13. Time to End it All

Chapter 13- Time to End it All

Cynder was still following Zyla. She had been following the monster for many hours, and now the sun was beginning to set. Soon night would fall over the lands and it would be a little harder to find Zyla.

All Cynder wanted to do now was kill Zyla, who was one of the main causes of Spyro's death. The other one who was responsible was Terrador, who she was not going to kill. He knew how much pain she was in already. He didn't deserve any more.

Zyla was still limping and blood dripped freshly from some of her wounds. Cynder, who was hiding behind a rock, could smell the fresh blood well. Sooner or later Zyla would have to lay down and rest, or her wounds would take over and and the pain would slowly, but surely, kill her.

Cynder would just have to wait for that, though. Zyla knew that sooner or later Cynder would begin to follow her. She was ready to battle and kill the black dragoness. No one could stop her now.

After all, the one dragon that would stop her from killing Cynder was now dead. Because of that, Cynder was weaker than she had ever been.

Zyla smiled malignantly. Soon it would all end. That she knew.

Cynder, meanwhile, did her very best to keep up. She, too, had wounds that troubled her very much. Though the wounds no longer bled, they hurt terribly and slowed her down by a heck of a lot.

The one that definitely hurt the most was her shoulder wound. The hook had most definitely left its mark. Just thinking about the wound and looking at it made more rage build up in her body.

There was no remorse left in her for Zyla. The creature had been one of the reasons why Spyro was now dead. She had also killed many others; she had even said that she had been under Cynder's command once. If that was true, then Zyla definitely had killed many others. And because of this, Cynder was going to kill Zyla. It was time to end it all.

Soon enough, night fell and the entire sky was pitch black. All the stars were gone. It was as if the sky knew what was going to happen. That there would be a final battle between two dragons that could be fatal for either of them.

Cynder hurried over behind a large tree that hid her completely from Zyla's view. She peeked around the gigantic trunk of the tree and saw that Zyla had decided to stop and rest in the middle of a circle created by a couple of rocks and a small tree. Zyla was panting hard, her wounds now catching up to her. She needed to rest.

As she lay down, Cynder debated whether or not she should attack. If she did, then she might be able to catch the monster by surprise and maybe kill her.

Cynder thought of what choices she had, and realized that the best time for her to attack and kill the monster was now. If she didn't kill Zyla right now, then the monster would regain some of her strength and Cynder would no longer be able to fight Zyla until she herself finally rested up.

But the amount of rest Cynder needed would take way too long for Cynder to wait. She knew that she had to end it all now. It was now or never.

So Cynder, still unseen by Zyla, walked out of her hiding place. Zyla's back was now turned to her. Cynder crouched, looking at Zyla to see where the pink dragoness's main weaknesses were.

The middle of Zyla's back would be the best place to attack, as she had already left her mark there. The bone was a little exposed and that made Zyla a target.

Then Cynder lunged at Zyla, claws outstretched. But what she did not know was that Zyla had been expecting her to attack right about now. She had heard grass rustle as Cynder stepped out of her hiding spot. She knew the black dragoness was there. And she was going to kill her now.

As Cynder lunged, Zyla whirled around and hit Cynder with the middle of her tail. Luckily it was not the blade. The middle of her tail knocked Cynder back onto the ground. Cynder tasted blood in her mouth.

"Hello, Cynder," rasped Zyla. "It seems that you're still alive, which is amazing. But the good news is, Spyro is now dead."

"Shut up!" growled Cynder. "I AM going to kill you, and this time you will not be able to do anything about it."

"Are you so sure about that?" Zyla drawled. "I believe all you are saying is crap. Spyro is now dead, and killing me won't be able to get him back. Did you think that when you decided to kill me?"

"No, all you are saying is crap, and truthfully I don't give a crap what you are saying. YOU WILL DIE, ZYLA! I WILL BE THE ONE TO KILL YOU! THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL MEET YOUR END!"

Zyla did nothing but laugh.

Cynder shot a blast of shadow at Zyla, but Zyla was able to dodge it. Zyla returned the favor by spitting dark fire at Cynder. Cynder jumped out of the way just in time. She realized that if she had not done so, she might have been killed by the flames.

She couldn't die just yet, she just couldn't. She had to avenge Spyro. If she didn't, then nothing in her life would mean anything. All of this would have been for nothing. And all Zyla would do was laugh.

Cynder released blast after blast of shadow, fear, poison, and wind, but none of them hit the malignant creature she was battling. That just made her angry. She had to win this battle. She had to!

"You're not doing very well in this battle, Cynder. Maybe it's time that you just give up and let me kill you," Zyla evilly suggested. "Then you will be able to see that stupid purple dragon you once loved once more!" Zyla threw back her head and laughed. The laugh, as it always had, was cold and had no sense of emotion in it.

"Why is it that you are this evil?" Cynder asked.

"I am not what you think of as evil," Zyla told her enemy. "I do what I believe and know to be right. When Malefor took power and was exiled, it was one of the best things that ever happened to this world! When he corrupted you and made you the general of his army, the days following were some of the best this realm ever had. Those that were not worthy enough hid those that were smart followed you and the great Malefor. But what made all things worse was the day that Spyro went looking for someone that could tell him who and what he was and also what his destiny was. Ignitus told him all that information, and when he told Spyro of you, the stupid purple dragon went on a journey to defeat you and save the other three Guardian dragons. He succeeded in doing so, freeing you from Malefor's corruption at the same time. Then Gaul decided to try and use the Night of Eternal Darkness to resurrect Malefor. As I was not around at the time, I was unable to help him. What happened after he decided to do such a thing was that you decided to run away. Spyro, of course, followed you, battling many creatures along the way. You were captured by both those Skavengers and then Gaul. Soon Spyro arrived at the Mountain of Malefor and climbed his way to the very center of the Well of Souls. He battled Gaul, letting Malefor corrupt during the final phase of the battle, and he finally brutally murdered Gaul. As the Mountain of Malefor collapsed, he encased you and him inside a crystal to save yourselves. Three years passed after that, and during that time Malefor returned to us all. The thing is, I kept in hiding, for I feared what he would do to me. I did hear that Malefor later sent a group of Grublins to free you from that crystal. They succeeded, and then Malefor wanted you both to be fed to the Golem. You both escaped, and then made your way through the Valley of Avalar and arrived at the dragon city of Warfang, where the Guardians were expecting you. You first had to defeat much of Malefor's army, and then you battled the Golem for one last time, the battle ending with the death of the creature. Soon afterward, Malefor sent all of you in Warfang a message that told you all he had resurrected the Destroyer, which would form the Belt of Fire and destroy the world. You used a dam to slow the Destroyer down, and then you decided to try and cross the Belt of Fire. You succeeded, but at the cost of Ignitus's life. You then made your way through the Burned Lands and through the Floating Islands, and you finally came face to face with Malefor himself. During a long talk, he corrupted you, and then Spyro's words brought you back from the corruption. A long and tiring fight began against Malefor. During that battle, the Destroyer completed its course, causing the world to finally end. The final part of your war against Malefor ended when you entered the core of the Earth. The Ancestors appeared and suddenly sealed him away, and finally Spyro repaired the world with all his power. It seemed that after that, you and Spyro believed you could just live happily ever after. Isn't all of what I just said true, Cynder?"

Cynder sighed. "It is," she answered. "But how is it that you know most of that? You were no where around when all of that was happening!"

Zyla laughed. "I don't have to tell you everything. But I will say that I have my sources. And my sources are always right, little dragoness."

Cynder growled. "Enough talk!" she exclaimed. "This is where the battle finally begins!"

Cynder once again lunged at Zyla. She was about to claw Zyla's back, but Zyla hit her once more in the chest with her tail. Cynder recovered in midair and shot a blast of shadow at Zyla. The blast hit Zyla's tail. Though Zyla visibly winced, the blast did pain her as much as Cynder had hoped.

Zyla released a torrent of dark flames at Cynder. Cynder felt the blazing heat they released, but the torrent did not touch her. She retaliated with another blast of shadow. Fire and shadow touched, giving the flames the color of indigo. At first, it seemed Cynder had the upper hand, but then her weariness finally gave in and Zyla grew stronger and stronger. Cynder was blasted onto the ground as Zyla grew much stronger.

She could see stars and the taste of blood was still in her mouth. She coughed, blood covering a rock in front of her. She slowly got up. The wound the meat hook had caused was worsening. If she didn't do something soon, Zyla would gain the upper hand and then kill her. She just couldn't let that happen. She wanted to avenge Spyro, and that was exactly what she was going to do. She could hear Zyla laugh again. Zyla's footsteps came closer and that was when Cynder lashed out with the blade on her tail.

It sliced Zyla's front left leg. Blood spurted from the wound. Zyla shrieked in pain. Suddenly Zyla swung her own tail at Cynder. The blade would have hit Cynder in the throat if she had not dodged at the same time. But the blade did graze her back.

Cynder shrieked as the blade left its mark. Hot blood streamed down her back, and Cynder just wanted the battle to be over. Zyla saw the pain she had just caused the small black dragoness and took that as her chance to deliver the fatal blow.

She lunged forward and grasped Cynder by the neck. She then thrust her head forward, her jaws open, and bit Cynder on the neck. This was the most pain Cynder had ever experienced. Blood dripped off her neck. Zyla shook her and then dropped her on the ground.

Cynder closed her eyes, feeling the pain throughout her body. She knew blood was pouring out of her body. Soon she would die, and all Zyla was going to do was stand there and watch.

Zyla leaned down and whispered sadistically into Cynder's ear, "You've lost, Cynder. It's all over. You will die a painful, slow death. And it will all be for nothing. You have not avenged Spyro's death, and you and I know that was the only reason you wanted to fight me: to avenge his death. And now you have lost. You are nothing but a piece of crap that has no place in this world. You have lost all your reasons to live now. Have a nice, happy death." Zyla smiled, and then opened her wings and flew off, laughing maniacally.

Cynder stared up at the sky, tears in her emerald eyes. It was all over now. She had failed.

_I'm so sorry, Spyro_, she thought. _I never avenged you, and for this I am sorry_.

Cynder's vision then flickered. She knew that she was about to die, and there was nothing she could do about it.

She finally closed her eyes, wishing for it all to be over. Her final thought was, _I'm so sorry, Spyro_. Then all went black, and Cynder thought no more.


	14. True Sorrow

**All right, so I know that most of you are mad at me for supposedly killing off Spyro. Well, please know that if you hate me for it, leave your opinions to yourself. I will delete any reviews that have mean things in them, such as criticisms. Know that this is the final chapter of this book. I will be making a sequel called _The Legend of Spyro: Cynder's Darkest Hour. _So anyway, enjoy the final chapter and be ready for the beginning of the sequel, which will be published in about three weeks. Have a nice day and God bless!**

* * *

><p>Chapter 14- True Sorrow<p>

Cynder opened her eyes. She saw a golden wall in front of her. She didn't know where the heck she was, but she did wonder one thing: how the heck was she still alive? Zyla, after all, had bitten her neck and left her for dead. She definitely should have been dead.

A door opened behind her and when a moment passed, she saw a large green dragon in front of her. It was Terrador.

"Hello, Cynder," he greeted. "Are you feeling well?"

Cynder blinked. "Where am I?" she asked.

"You are in the new Temple that was built after the old one was destroyed during your and Spyro's fight with Malefor," Terrador answered. "Spyro has been here once before, when we were deciding how to rescue you."

"You had to mention my rescue, didn't you?" Cynder said. "I really never wanted to remember it. All I really want to know now is, how the heck am I still alive? I remember that Zyla bit my neck and then left me for dead. Did you find me after that?"

"Yes. I went looking for you after you had flown off. While doing so, I heard the sounds of a fight not far from me. I hurried as far as I could to that spot, and when I arrived, I found you lying there on the ground, bleeding and, I guess, slowly dying. I needed to do something, and so I gently picked you up and flew you back this Temple. You've been sleeping for the past three days. We've been doing our best to nurse you back to health, but it would've been easier had you been awake."

Cynder sighed. "You should have just left me there to die. I didn't want to keep living, Terrador. Spyro is dead now, and because of that, there is nothing for me to live for. Do you not realize that?"

Terrador sighed himself. He felt pity for the small black dragoness. She had gone through much pain already and he did not want to cause her anymore pain. But nothing he said was helping Cynder. Every time he opened his mouth, it made her sadness even worse.

What could he do to help her? It seemed there was nothing more he could do. It seemed it was all lost. But he would do all he could.

"Cynder, you must realize that there is always something for you to live for," he told her. "Even if times seem dark and dim, you must try to remember that there will always be others that love you." But as soon as he said that, he regretted he had ever done so. As soon as he'd finished saying it, Cynder burst into tears. Terrador was about to go over to her and comfort her, but then the doors that led into the room opened and Cyril and Volteer entered. They stared at the scene. Terrador stood near Cynder, who was crying. They both knew of Cynder's wounds and had been tending to them ever since Terrador had brought her back to the Temple. They knew of the pain she was in, whether it was physical or emotional, and knew that it would be a while before Cynder finally calmed down.

"Cynder, you knew that one of these days, either you or Spyro would pass away, and we both know that had that happened, either of you would have wanted the other to be happy no matter what, even if they no longer felt they had a reason to live. Do you realize that?"

Cynder looked up at him with her emerald eyes. They shone with tears and sorrow was deep within them.

"What you are saying means nothing to me anymore," she told him. "I have lost the only dragon I have ever loved. He is the first and last dragon I ever loved. Now that he is gone, I have nothing to live for. When you found me dying there on the ground after the battle with Zyla, you should have just left me there. I deserved to die; I'm sure anyone that has lost a loved one agrees. But I know that you never loved anyone, Terrador. So you never knew and never will know how the heck I feel. You don't know what it feels like to lose someone you loved."

"You are right, Cynder," he admitted. "I do not know that feeling, and I probably never will. But I do know one thing-" But just as he was about to say something, Cyril interrupted him.

"Terrador, please stop," he said. "Can you not see that she is in enough pain already? I do not think that she deserves anymore of it."

Terrador stared at Cyril. He did not know whether to stop or to keep going on. Unknown to him, Cynder had already entered her depression. She had given into the belief that without Spyro, she no longer had anything to live for. And no one could tell her otherwise.

Volteer remained silent. He had nothing to say, but he did believe that Cynder was right. Spyro, after all, had been the only dragon she had ever loved. Why did Terrador believe that it would be easy for her to her to just move on from Spyro's death?

Cynder had had enough. She slowly got up, feeling the pain from the wounds Zyla had inflicted upon her. She knew that it was time for her to leave. Terrador would never listen to her.

She saw that two doors were open. They led to a balcony outside. She began moving towards them, but was then stopped by Terrador.

"Where do you think you're going, Cynder?" he asked her.

"I'm leaving," she answered. She gasped for air as one of her wounds painfully throbbed. "You have done nothing but hurt me more. I've been through enough pain, Terrador. Do you really believe I deserve more?"

She gazed into his dark green eyes. He looked back, and then hung his head and sighed.

"Cynder, I-" Suddenly Volteer stopped him.

"Terrador, she does not deserve anymore of this!" he snapped. The stress of the last few weeks were beginning to show in both his appearance and how he talked. His scales had once been a deep golden color, but now they were a pale yellow. He had also once used large words, but now that the stress had caught up to him, he sounded tired and weary and spoke normally. "Just leave her alone!"

Cynder looked back up at Terrador. "Terrador, if you really wish to know how I feel, know that I will never forgive you for causing Spyro's death. I will forever hate you, and you can do nothing about it." Cynder then limped out to the balcony and opened her wings. Though it was painful, she jumped into the air and flew as far as she could from the Temple. Terrador watched as she moved farther and farther away, knowing that he had done nothing but harm her, and now she would always hate him.

Cynder was heading toward the Valley of Avalar. She would return to the home she and Spyro had once shared. During this journey, she vowed that she would avenge Spyro's death. Nobody could stop her, for she knew that she would fulfill this vow. As she entered the Valley and arrived at the cave, she burst into tears and deep sorrow washed over her. While she sobbed, she told herself one thing: She would find Zyla once more and finally kill the malignant pink dragoness.

**End of Book I**


End file.
